⁍ New initiative would use financial incentives to encourage U.S. firms to move production facilities out of Asia.

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⁍ Project could bring $30 billion to $50 billion in U.S. investment back to the Americas.

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⁍ infrastructure, energy and transportation could be the first potential areas of focus.

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– The Trump administration is planning a major push to encourage US companies to move production out of Asia and into the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. “We’re essentially creating a ‘Back to the Americas’ initiative,” senior White House adviser Mauricio Claver-Carone tells Reuters. He says the project could bring $30 billion to $50 billion in US investment back to the Americas. Claver-Carone says the administration has already been working with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to help them attract US investors, but the H1N1 pandemic proved the point that it was time for US companies to follow suit. He didn’t name any companies, but he pointed to the administration’s use of a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak to produce pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States to help fight the pandemic. The initiative would not focus on cheap labor costs, but would build on provisions aimed at protecting workers that were included in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that entered into force in July, he says.