Donald Trump during his videoconference speech in Davos on January 23, 2025 (AFP / Fabrice COFFRINI)
Come produce in America or prepare to pay customs duties: this is the warning launched Thursday by Donald Trump to the big bosses gathered to listen to him in Davos.
“My message to all businesses around the world is simple: come and make your products in America and you will benefit from some of the lowest taxes in the world,” declared the newly inaugurated 47th President of the United States.
“But if you do not produce them in the United States, which is your right, then, very simply, you will have to pay customs duties,” added Mr. Trump, who spoke by videoconference from the White House to the meeting annual event of the World Economic Forum in the upscale resort of the Swiss Alps.
His appearance on a giant screen in the main hall of the Davos Congress Center was greeted with loud applause.
The event was eagerly awaited after the numerous decrees issued and threats made since his return to power on Monday. Around a hundred people were already queuing to return three quarters of an hour before the start of the session, noted an AFP journalist.
– Oil and war in Ukraine –
Participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 22, 2025 in Switzerland (AFP / FABRICE COFFRINI)
The US president has touted his plans to lower taxes, deregulate and tackle illegal immigration.
He also called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to “lower the cost of oil”, saying that “if the price were lower, the war in Ukraine would be over immediately”.
In kyiv, the Ukrainian presidency said it “fully” supported the American president's efforts to reduce the pressure on Russia by lowering oil prices so that Moscow would end the war.
“Mr. President, I am sure that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia will be very happy with your speech today,” joked Stephen Schwarzman of the investment fund Blackstone, the first of the big bosses invited to ask questions to the American president from the stage in Davos.
The CEO of the oil giant TotalEnergies, the Frenchman Patrick Pouyanné, notably asked him for guarantees on the security of Europe's supplies of American liquefied natural gas. “You will have it,” assured the president.
-Donald Trump has already visited Davos in person twice during his first term, drawing crowds each time.
Among the personalities noted by AFP in the audience were the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristaline Georgieva and that of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former American special envoy for climate John Kerry, and even Polish President Andrzej Duda.
– “Keep calm” –
Disregarding their independence, Donald Trump also expressed his demands on central banks, starting with the American Federal Reserve (Fed) which meets next week. “I demand that interest rates fall immediately and, in the same way, they should fall everywhere in the world,” he asserted.
He also took the opportunity to recall that from now on, “there are only two genders, man and woman”, in the United States, ensuring that such a decision would reduce the number of gender transition surgical operations. .
Earlier in the day, one of his close claimed allies, the ultraliberal Argentine President Javier Milei, had already launched a full-scale attack against the “mental virus of woke ideology”, compared to a “cancer that must be extirpated”.
He also defended his “dear friend” Elon Musk, who has become essential in recent months alongside Donald Trump but accused of having made a Nazi salute during a recent meeting in Washington.
The richest man in the world, who denied that this was his intention, was “unjustly vilified by wokism in the last hours for an innocent gesture”, assured Javier Milei.
By championing “America first”, Donald Trump displays values that are the opposite of multilateralism and free trade, which the World Economic Forum has been heralding for years.
Threats of surcharges against Mexico, Canada, the European Union or China, withdrawal from the World Health Organization or the Paris climate agreement, stated desire to “take back” the Panama Canal.. Donald Trump has given a taste of his intentions since his inauguration on Monday, which coincided with the opening of the Davos Forum.
“Even if customs taxes are announced, please keep calm,” WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pleaded in Davos on Thursday.
A calm that not everyone shares. “God save us,” whispered a spectator who had attended Donald Trump’s performance as he left the room.
