Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he wants to increase the level of U.S. trade, but where it is deemed to be unfair, measures will be taken.
Speaking during a CNBC panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mnuchin said the U.S. as a nation wanted “more trade, not less trade” but that there were “big imbalances” where some markets were not fully open to U.S. firms.
“I would say the U.S. has the most open trading market in the world and the most open investment market in the world,” he said. “But we want fair trade we want reciprocal trade and where there are trade issues we will enforce them,” Mnuchin added.
There has been a raft of comments from Davos attendees this week calling on the United States to remain open to international trade and not use tariffs or other measures to bolster its domestic firms.
Earlier this week, the Donald Trump administration’s “America First” policy openly came into effect for the first time when tariffs were applied to incoming solar panels and washing machines. The move was seen to have most affected Chinese and South Korean firms.
U.S. officials said more trade enforcement actions would follow.
