With just a few hours remaining before the US election verdict is revealed, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said Singapore is one of the Asian countries that steal jobs from Americans.
At a campaign rally in Florida Trump said that countries like China, India and Singapore are stealing jobs from Americas. He also gave an estimated amount of 70,000 factories that are lost to China since the Asian giant joined World Trade Organisation.
"We are living through the greatest jobs theft in the history of the world. There's never been a country that's lost jobs like we do, so stupidly, so easy to solve," said Trump to his supports in Tampa, according to Press Trust of India.
He also took a dig at the countries by citing Goodrich Lighting Systems and Baxter Health Care example and said the situation is getting worse day by day.
"Goodrich Lighting Systems laid off 255 workers and moved their jobs to India. Baxter Health Care Corporation laid off 199 workers and moved their jobs to Singapore. Essilor Laboratories laid off 181 workers and moved their jobs, surprise, to Mexico. It's getting worse and worse and worse," he added.
TRUMP ZEROES IN ON FLORIDA
Donald Trump gave this speech in Florida, which has been severely affected by the job losses. It's also a crucial swing state with 29 electoral college votes that can determine the outcome of this year's election.
Trump further told his supporters that since Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Florida has lost one in four of its manufacturing jobs. Trump said he has a plan in place to prevent Florida lose further jobs. He said that the companies which are retrenching workers in Florida will be taxed heavily if they return to US.
"If a company wants to fire their workers, leave Florida, move to another country, and then shift their product back into the United States, we will make them pay a tax of 35 per cent," he said, as reported by Channel News Asia.
"They're never going to leave this country. They're never leaving. They're never going to leave this country. A Trump administration will renegotiate NAFTA. If we don't get the deal we want, we will terminate NAFTA and get a much better deal for our workers," he added.
The billionaire also warned the "corrupt Washington establishment" that after he wins the election, he is going to to end government corruption and claim back the country from "special interest".
Taking a dig at his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the American leader said that he will terminate the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as, according to him, it is one of the blunders of the government which Clinton earlier claimed is the "gold standard" of trade deals.
"Yeah, it's the gold standard for other countries, not for us. The gold standard for the countries that want to be part of that deal...As part of our plan to bring back jobs, we're going to lower taxes on American business from 35 per cent to 15 per cent. We're the highest taxed nation in the world, one of the main reasons that they're leaving. We will massively cut taxes for the middle class, also," said Trump, as reported by PTI.
