Manufacturing business leaders want President-elect Donald J. Trump to reduce regulations, close off the U.S. border with Mexico and lower corporate taxes, IndustryWeek readers say.
An unscientific poll of readers last week listed eight priorities from the Trump campaign’s list of priorities and asked readers to choose their No. 1 priority for the new administration. (Trump’s website listed about 20 policies, but IndustryWeek included only those with a direct impact on manufacturers, leaving out, for example, securing elections and ‘rebuild our cities.’)
The responses reflect both the business community’s concerns and the makeup of the IW audience. For example, making more federal lands available for drilling was the bottom priority on this survey, but a similar poll of readers of Oil & Gas Journal, a publication also owned by IndustryWeek parent company Endeavor Business Media, would likely get a stronger response.
Business leaders, especially those in manufacturing, have long complained about the regulatory state’s rules that hinder production, and reducing regulations was the most popular response on the survey. Closing the border, lowering corporate taxes and imposing tariffs on incoming goods were the other policies to hit double digits.
More interesting were the poorer performers. Manufacturers were more interested in general regulations than a new round of higher trade charges on goods imported from China. President Joe Biden left in place most of the tariffs on China that Trump enacted in his first term. On the campaign trail throughout the past two years, Trump has promised as much as 60% tariffs on Chinese goods. Nearly 10% of survey takers called that a No. 1 priority, almost exactly half as many as who said regulation cuts should come first.
Trump also promised to modernize and rebuild the U.S. military. And, despite the large number of manufacturers with ties to defense spending, that policy received tepid support. And second-from-the-bottom, just ahead of opening more federal land for drilling was Trump’s promise to launch the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history.
Only 5.6% of respondents listed that as a top priority. Several trade organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, have proposed immigration reform instead of deportations, arguing that the country is in the midst of a labor shortage and can’t afford to lose millions of potential workers.
