US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday
that President Donald Trump might ease U.S. restrictions on Huawei if there was
progress in the trade row with China - but absent a deal, Washington would
maintain tariffs to cut its deficit.
“I think what the president is saying is, if
we move forward on trade, that perhaps he’ll be willing to do certain things on
Huawei if he gets comfort from China on that and certain guarantees,” Mnuchin
said. “But these are national security issues.”
Washington has imposed and then toughened
import tariffs on Chinese goods in a bid to reduce the United States’ trade
deficit and combat what it calls unfair trade practices.
It has also accused the Chinese
telecommunications giant of espionage and stealing intellectual property,
allegations that Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a leading provider of
next-generation 5G technology, denies.
Washington has put Huawei on a blacklist that
effectively bans U.S. firms from doing business with it, and has put pressure
on its allies also to shut Huawei out, arguing that Huawei could use its
technology to carry out espionage for Beijing.
Mnuchin said the United States was prepared to
come to a deal with China, but also to maintain tariffs if necessary.
“If China wants to move forward with the deal,
we’re prepared to move forward on the terms we’ve done. If China doesn’t want
to move forward, then President Trump is perfectly happy to move forward with
tariffs to rebalance the relationship,” Mnuchin said.
Commenting on an immigration deal between
Mexico and the United States, Mnuchin said he believed that Mexico would meet
its commitments, but added that Trump “reserves the right” to impose tariffs if
the commitments were not met.
Trump himself tweeted on Saturday that “Mexico
will try very hard, and if they do that, this will be a very successful
agreement between the United States and Mexico”.