Steven Mnuchin says US-China decoupling will occur if American firms cannot compete fairly
- Treasury secretary says he has ‘every expectation’ that China will live up to terms of phase one trade deal
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that a decoupling of the US and Chinese economies will result if American companies are not allowed to compete on a fair and level basis in China’s economy.
Speaking at a virtual event sponsored by Bloomberg and Invesco, Mnuchin said he also had “every expectation” that China would live up to the terms of the phase one trade agreement calling for a massive increase in Chinese purchases of US goods, energy and services.
“If we can compete with China on a fair and level playing field, it is a great opportunity for US businesses and US workers, as China has a large, growing middle class,” he said. “But if we can’t participate and compete on a fair basis, then you are going to see a decoupling going forward.”
Switching to the coronavirus epidemic in the United States, Mnuchin said he hoped to have the next aid package passed by both chambers of Congress in July, and that while negotiations had begun, there was no need to rush because there were still hundreds of billions of dollars undistributed from the last bill, passed in March.
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The next coronavirus bill would be more targeted to businesses that need help the most and toward returning many people to work as quickly as possible.
While infrastructure projects will be part of those discussions, Mnuchin said the next bill would likely focus on other priorities.
“The issue with infrastructure is that normally, these are not shovel-ready [projects],” Mnuchin said. “Even if we pass something, this isn’t going to impact getting people back to work in September and October.”
Is China preparing to decouple from the US?
President Donald Trump is racing to try to revive the economy from coronavirus shutdowns before the US presidential election on November 3.
Mnuchin added that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows would participate in the negotiations between the Trump administration and congressional leaders.
