US: White House: ‘No specific’ actions being considered for Amazon

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, March 28, the Trump administration isn’t considering any changes in policy directed at Amazon.com, reported Bloomberg.

Amazon.com lost US$53 billion in market value on Wednesday after Axios reported that President Donald Trump is “obsessed” with regulating the e-commerce behemoth.

Asked about the report at the White House daily press briefing, Sanders responded, “We have no announcements and no specific policies or actions that we’re currently pushing forward or considering taking.”

“The president has said many times before he’s always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this no different and he’s going to always look at different ways, but there aren’t any specific policies on the table at this time,” Sanders added.

Earlier Wednesday, Axios reporter Jonathan Swan reported that Trump believed Amazon is a negative force for smaller, locally owned retailers and wants to find a way to curtail the company’s dominance in online shopping. According to Axios’ sources, the US president was considering a change to Amazon’s tax status or a crackdown down through antitrust rules.

Trump hasn’t been shy about his distaste for Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, previously tweeting that the retailer is hurting the US Postal Service and attacking Bezos for his ownership of The Washington Post.

“Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers,” Trump tweeted in August. “Towns, cities and states throughout the US are being hurt – many jobs being lost!”

Full Content: Bloomberg

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