US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks to CNBC
- Will increase US exports to China significantly
- Discussed lowering tariffs with China
- US team is unified on US-China trade talks
- Trump did not dictate any terms of US review of ZTE
- Both US and China have agreed to suspend tariffs
- This is a trade dispute with China, it was never a war
- US could increase energy exports to China under agreement
- US-China talks have to be turned into binding agreements with companies
- US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is to travel to China to put framework in place
- Some parts of agreement will take time, some can be put in place immediately
- If we don't get what we want on China trade, Trump can put tariffs back on
- Economic growth this year to be very strong
- There is still some significant, open issues over NAFTA
- We'll see where we get on NAFTA talks in the next few weeks
- Still trying to get a new deal done
- Still focused on new NAFTA deal that Congress would have to approve
- But could consider a possible 'skinny' deal instead of full-on NAFTA agreement
- A strong US dollar is good for the US in the long-term
- US well on its way to 3% or higher sustained growth
No further details so far being given by Mnuchin on what items or the amount that China is willing to agree upon on the concession. But the fact that the headlines are crossing at the start of North American trading should set a healthy tone for equities later in the day.
With regards to NAFTA, I'm not even sure what a 'skinny' deal would look like. That just sounds really odd and I don't think anything like that would be of the interest of all parties.
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