Unilever boss says look at what Trump does, not what he says

He also said that predictions about protectionism emerging in the US were still “speculative”, and that improving the US economy cannot be done in isolation.

Paul Polman, the chief executive of Unilever, says America cannot be made great in isolation – a rebuke of Donald Trump's protectionist rhetoric. Jaime Puebla / The National
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The Unilever chief Paul Polman said today that making America great again cannot be in done in isolation.

The boss of the consumer goods giant was referring to the campaigning slogan of the US president-elect Donald Trump.

“Many American companies are in the region and depend on the region,” he said in Dubai at the opening of €250 million Unilever factory. “They are global companies such as the GE’s and Boeings and they would not be very successful on a US-only strategy.”

He said that predictions about protectionism emerging in the US were still “speculative”.

“We have to see more what he is going to do than what he is saying,” Mr Polman said. “We clearly have seen not such a high correlation of what he says and what he does. Now that he got elected, we have to judge on what he is doing.”

During his election campaign, Mr Trump said he would revisit the North American Free Trade Agreement and criticised China as a currency manipulator.

The strong US dollar has hurt many exporters in the US and in other countries with currencies that are pegged to the greenback, which includes the UAE.

“We are in a period globally where you see high volatility in currencies,” he said. “That is more of a challenge than the dollar.”

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