China tariffs on the table, Trump’s ex-Treasury chief says
Steven Mnuchin also suggested that countries such as Iran and Russia could see sanctions intensify
US President-elect Donald Trump is likely to return to the issue of tariffs in negotiations with China, as well as consider tax cuts and new sanctions, his former Treasury Secretary said in an interview on Thursday.
“I think that tariffs do need to be used to get counterparties back to the table, especially China, which is not living up to all of the agreements they made in the Phase One trade agreement,” Steven Mnuchin told CNBC.
He was referring to a 2020 trade deal that followed a truce in a tariff war between Washington and Beijing.
Mnuchin added on Thursday that he would recommend Trump use tariffs in a “strategic way” to ensure there is not widespread inflation.
He noted that in his time in the Trump administration, tariffs were accompanied by exemptions for certain products US businesses needed.
