Trump's messages to CEOs: Revamp of Wall Street reform rules and surprise on NAFTA
BUSINESS
By Zhao Hong

2017-04-12 18:27 GMT+8

11159km to Beijing

By CGTN's Cyrus Ip
US President Donald Trump met with 20 chief executives including the heads of General Motors, IBM and Wal-Mart on Tuesday as he tries to gain support for his administration priorities. Cutting red-tapes for business and creating more jobs is what Trump promised in the meeting. Trump also previewed that there will be a "pleasant surprise" on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) issue.
Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Blackstone Group LP (R), speaks at a strategic and policy discussion with Donald Trump and executives at the White House in Washington, DC, April 11, 2017. /CFP Photo
In order to attract more investments and ensure future growth, Trump said his administration is going to reduce more taxes and other red-tapes for business. Particularly, he said he will replace the law of Wall Street reform with something else, but provided no details.
"We're going to eliminate wasteful regulations which we've already done, probably 25 percent. You could take a look at Dodd-Frank, for the bankers in the room, they'd be very happy because we are really doing a major streamlining and perhaps elimination and replacing it with something else. But that would be the minimum. Keeping some, obviously, but getting rid of many," Trump addressed.
US President Donald Trump (C) speaks during a strategic and policy discussion with executives at the White House in Washington, DC, April 11, 2017. /CFP Photo
There were  almost 600,000 jobs created in the US since Trump took office, Trump said to the chiefs that his approach is a "historic action" to unleash job creation, and expects more companies are willing to invest in the US.
"Economic confidence is sweeping the nation. You saw the new survey that came out. It's at 93 percent which is the highest it's ever been. It's a 27 percent increase over two months ago when it was also higher because of the administration, and much higher than it's ever been," Trump said.
Trump also told CEOs to expect some "very pleasant surprises" in terms of tackling NAFTA, a trade agreement that he described as a disaster and punished production in America and rewarded companies for leaving the US, but again, he provided no details or timeline at this point.
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