Donald Trump’s top aides on Sunday downplayed the idea of US companies being forced to abandon China any time soon, as an edict from the president ordering businesses to start looking for alternatives has been met with skepticism.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economics advisor Larry Kudlow took to the airwaves from France, where Trump is participating in the G7 summit, to smooth out tensions in the business community prompted by Trump’s Friday tweet.
Trump said he has “no plan now” to bring US companies in line, and his aides quickly reinforced the message.”He would have the authority to do that… He has not done that,” Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday.”
Mnuchin said that authority comes from the somewhat obscure International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a federal law passed in 1977.
The law grants the president powers to regulate international trade in the face of an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad to US foreign policy, national security or the economy.
But it has never been used to tip the scales in a trade dispute.”I think what he was saying is that he is ordering companies to start looking,” he added.
The Trump administration wants US businesses to operate in places where “trading partners respect us and trade with us fairly,” Mnuchin added.
Source: Guardian Newspaper.
