Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross doesn't see an income tax on robots as a solution to the threat of job automation, disagreeing with a suggestion from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates
"I'm not in favor of trying to hold back technological advance," Ross told CNBC. "We need technological advance. And if we don't employ robots, the Chinese will, the Vietnamese will, the Europeans will, the Japanese will. Everyone will."
The network asked Ross about the idea that income generated by robots should be taxed at similar levels to human income tax — as Gates proposed in an interview with Quartz last month.
"The right solution is to properly equip the American workforce, not to try to hold back technology," Ross said, adding that tore taxes and regulation would hamper the U.S. economy.
Improvements to community college training might prepare Americans "to be part of the workforce of the future," he told the business channel.
ZTE Fined
Ross warned the world that the United States will no longer tolerate "improper trade games" and will punish any nation it deems as a violator of the rules.
Ross spoke after Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. agreed to plead guilty and pay $892 million to settle allegations it violated U.S. laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology to Iran and North Korea, the company and U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday.
"With this action, we are putting the world on notice. Improper trade games are over with," Ross told reporters Tuesday. He called ZTE's actions "a brazen disregard for our laws."
"Those who flout our economic sanctions and export control laws will not go unpunished," Ross said in a statement. "They will suffer the harshest of consequences," Ross said.
ZTE entered into an agreement to plead guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, obstruction of justice and making a material false statement, the U.S. Justice Department said.
ZTE, one of the world’s biggest makers of telecom equipment and the No. 4 smartphone vendor in the United States, sells handset devices to U.S. mobile carriers AT&T, T-Mobile US and Sprint. It relies on U.S. companies including Qualcomm, Microsoft and Intel for parts.