(Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Friday he was ordering U.S. companies to look at ways to close their operations in China and make more of their products in the United States instead, a rhetorical strike at Beijing as trade tensions mounted. Trump cannot legally compel U.S. companies to abandon China immediately and he gave no detail on how he might proceed with any such order, although he said he would be offering a response later on Friday to tariffs on American products announced by China earlier in the day. The U.S. dollar rose sharply against the Chinese yuan, U.S. stock markets fell and oil
prices dropped on Trump’s latest salvo against China. “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them.” Experts said tax policy changes and sanctions could be used to restrict or reduce U.S. business activity in China, but it would take years to disentangle the world’s two largest economies. READ MORE
