Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested there “could be” a trade war between the United States and China over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Mnuchin said, “Our expectation is that we don’t think there will be a trade war. Our objective is to continue to have discussions with China. We want to have free and fairy reciprocal trade. We’re just looking for our companies and our workers to have a level playing field. Right now we have about 500 billion of goods we buy from China, and they buy about 135 billion from us. So this is one of the single biggest opportunities for American companies and American workers if we are free and fair trade. That’s what the president wants.”

He added, “I don’t expect there will be a trade war. It could be, but I don’t expect it at all. But the president is willing to make sure we have free and fair trade as you’ve seen his tweet already this morning. And again, he has a very close relationship with President Xi Jinping. We’ll continue to discuss these issues with them.”

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