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Anyone hoping for fast tax reforms in the United States can shelve their hopes for future as the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin called the current August deadline as highly aggressive to non-realistic at this point, speaking in an interview with the Financial Times. And if you are looking to blame anyone or anything, then you can go for healthcare. Mr. Mnuchin said that it is probably delayed a bit because of the healthcare. He, however, insisted that tax reforms would be done before the end of 2017. Last month, a Republican majority failed to come to the consensus with regard to health care and the bill could not be tabled for voting as it lacked support. Mr. Trump has insisted that negotiations are still going on.
With regard to questions of currency manipulations and Trump’s displeasure of a strong dollar, Mr. Mnuchin rejected the idea that the United States is heading for a showdown with global partners in a brand new currency war. Last week, in an interview, President Trump said that the US dollar is too strong and it is hurting the economy. However, Mr. Mnuchin cleared that the President was making factual comments about the strength of the dollar in the short term and pointed out that there are differences between talks and actions. He added, “As the world’s currency, the primary reserve currency, I think that over long periods of time the strength of the dollar is a good thing…..It’s a function of the confidence and the strength of the US economy.”
Mr. Mnuchin also confirmed that the controversial border adjustment tax is still on the table but insisted that there are other ways to close budget gaps. When questioned if the tax reforms would be deficit neutral, Mr. Treasury secretary added that higher growth would be adding to tax revenues.
He also added that he supports the recent reversal by President Trump who refused to call China a currency manipulator He said that the President’s comments during the campaign related a time before him, so the current change in rhetoric is justified based on the combinations of facts and how China works with the United States. He also defended sanctions as a tool and called it of extreme importance. He also expressed that the United States is ready to roll out more sanctions against countries like North Korea and Iran.
