Trump says UAE's aluminium sector is 'talk of the industry'
Live updates: Follow the latest on Trump's Gulf trip US President Donald Trump said the UAE's aluminium sector is "the talk" of the industry, after the country's biggest producer of the metal announced an expansion into America, while touting the tariff-free business environment in the Emirates. Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE's largest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector, on Thursday announced it would develop a $4 billion primary aluminium smelter project in Oklahoma. It was among several agreements announced during the final leg of Mr Trump's Gulf tour. Mr Trump heaped praise on the aluminium announcement and took the opportunity to laud tariff-free manufacturing in the world's biggest economy. "There's really nothing like it. The global aluminium from the Emirates has been the talk of the aluminium business," he said, in reference to EGA, at the US-UAE business forum in Abu Dhabi on Friday. "They're very big with aluminium and now they're going to be spending a tremendous amount of money in one of my favourite places, Oklahoma ... just build your plant inside the US and you have no tariffs, and that's exactly what they're doing. That's what many, many companies are doing." EGA's investment pledge is part of deals that Mr Trump expects to be worth between $12 trillion and $13 trillion. 'There's never been anything like what's happening right now to the US. We're at a level that no country has seen," he said. He added that, after the US secured trade agreements with the UK and China, 150 countries want to make a deal with Washington. 'At a certain point, over the next two to three weeks, we will be sending letters out, essentially telling people what they'll be paying to do business in the US," the President said. 'They could appeal it but, for the most part, I think we're going to be very fair.'
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The National
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