There are lots of uncertainties surrounding the new administration in the United States led by President Donald Trump. While it can be sometimes noisy surrounding Trump given the level of theatricals in the media, one can understand the direction of policies in the world’s largest economy by hearing from the deputies of the administration. Anybody, who heard the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin at the G20, would have no doubts in their mind with regard to the direction of the United States in terms of trade.

Speaking at the G20 and in the Q&A session, Steven Mnuchin has cleared the air once and for all that the United States would work to make new trade deals under the Trump administration, renegotiate existing ones and eliminate those, which are hurtful for the country. Here are the key highlights,

• The United States will pursue free trade deals but only those which are fairer.
• Past communications are irrelevant from the new treasury secretary’s standpoint. When asked about the changes in language at the G20 statement, he said the above and added that historical language not relevant.
• The treasury secretary has also added that his country would work to eliminate imbalances, which means that would be looking at the deficits of the United States with different countries and would work to eliminate them.
• He added that the administration would force some WTO rules which are not being followed and look at trade agreements which were made a long time ago. The United States would also look to change rules at WTO as they were made a long time ago.

It’s clear that the treasury secretary would be looking to work on trade deals with an objective to reduce deficits of the United States. Countries which enjoy a large surplus with the US should be cautious going ahead.

Here is the full G20 statement, http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2017/170318-finance-en.pdf