U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has left the door open for a trade deal with China, but at the same time has insisted the Trump administration won’t back down in its push for more balanced trade between the two nations.
He signaled that stance in a “Fox News Sunday” interview amid tensions triggered by U.S. plans to impose tariffs on Chinese imports worth $60 billion. Both sides have exchanged barbs, and China has threatened to retaliate with tariffs on $3 billion worth of U.S. goods. Financial markets have taken a hit as investors fear a potential global trade war, with U.S. stocks last week suffering their biggest weekly drop since early 2016.
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In the Fox interview, Mnuchin said while the U.S. was not bluffing with its tariff threats, Washington was simultaneously talking to Beijing to see if a deal could be reached.
His measured optimism over the talks was viewed as helping U.S. stock futures YMM8, +1.37% rally on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, said Mnuchin and China’s vice premier for economic policy, Liu He, were in discussions to allow more access for the U.S. to China’s markets, in areas such as financial services, manufacturing and more.
Mnuchin also tried to quell the alarm that financial markets have expressed over the trade tensions. Stocks and other riskier assets have been under pressure since President Donald Trump in early March announced plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a threat he followed through on last week, with exceptions for a number of trading partners.
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“The market will go up and down in the short term,” Mnuchin said on Sunday. “The real important issue is where it will be longer term. And the market is still up an enormous amount since the election.”
Mnuchin added that U.S. trade strategy was “long-term good for the economy.”
“We’ve been very careful in how we’re doing this and what we’re doing,” he said.
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