New York - Technology industry leaders including Facebook’s
Sheryl Sandberg and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos met with Donald Trump, seeking to
persuade a man whose presidential bid many of them opposed to avoid policies
they believe would hurt their companies.
“I’m here to help you folks do well,” Trump told the
executives as the meeting began on Wednesday.
Trump has a prickly relationship with the industry. He
differs with many tech CEOs on immigration, internet security and regulation
and on government investment. This summer, more than 140 tech industry
executives published an open letter denouncing his candidacy and declaring that
he "would be a disaster for innovation."
Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, who like most other CEOs at the
Trump Tower meeting did not sign the letter, said that trade would be at the
top of the agenda. Trump has promised to unwind the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
a trade agreement President Barack Obama negotiated with 11 other Pacific Rim
nations. He’s also said he would seek to renegotiate the North America Free
Trade Agreement.
"This is a very important meeting," Catz said
before the meeting. "Better trade deals are tremendously important to us.
We are net exporters. Over 60% of our sales are overseas. So better trade deals
are very much in our interest."
Trump told the executives he would make “fair trade
deals.”
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The meeting also included Alphabe’s Larry Page and Eric
Schmidt, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Cisco Systems
CEO Chuck Robbins, Apple’s Tim Cook, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp and
International Business Machines CEO Ginni Rometty. Rometty also serves on a
panel of CEOs advising Trump on business and economic matters. Bezos is
Amazon’s CEO; Sandberg is Facebook’s chief operating officer.
Campaign donations
Employees of internet companies donated more than ten
times as much money to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign than to
Trump - $5.6 million compared with $54 472, according to data compiled by the Centre
for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks money in
politics.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, some technologists debated
whether invitees should even attend. A few top industry executives that were
invited, including Uber Technologies’s Travis Kalanick and Airbnb’s Brian
Chesky, didn’t go. Both companies said their CEOs had conflicting travel. Trump
announced on Wednesday that Kalanick and Elon Musk would both join Rometty on
his advisory panel, the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.
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Despite any reservations, most corporate executives
would jump at the chance to press their agendas with the new leader of the
world’s largest economy. And there are areas of common ground. The largest US
technology companies hold hundreds of billions of dollars overseas and would like
to bring that money back at a favourable tax rate. Trump has called for tax
reform to allow such repatriation and has said revenue from the move could fund
improvements to US infrastructure.
Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology
Association, said most of the disagreement between Trump and the tech industry
has been over social issues rather than business.
"Trump is in a transition from running for office to
serving in office. He will want Apple and other major tech companies to
succeed," Shapiro said before the meeting.
Job moves
A top subject at the meeting was jobs.
During his campaign, Trump criticised US corporations for
moving jobs to other countries, and since his election, he has threatened
"consequences" for companies that send work offshore. Earlier in the
year, he said that he’d aim to get Apple to make its products in the US Apple
has suppliers make most of its products in China; moving that work to the US
would likely increase the cost of iPhones and iPads.
Some big technology companies made what appeared to be
pre-emptive moves ahead of the meeting with Trump. IBM’s Rometty unveiled
a plan to hire about 25 000 people in the US over the next four years. Apple
may back a $100 billion technology fund that aims to invest about half the
money in the US and has pledged to create 50 000 new domestic jobs.
Hours before the meeting, Bezos announced Amazon’s first
delivery of a consumer product by drone to a customer. The test was conducted
in England because Amazon says the UK’s regulations are less restrictive. Trump
has vowed to ease regulations across the government.
-With assistance
from Todd Shields and Cory Johnson.
BLOOMBERG