Mnuchin warns of tax reform delay following healthcare setback: FT

[April 18, 2017]  (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration's timetable for tax reform is set to falter following setbacks in negotiations with Congress over healthcare, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Mnuchin told the Financial Times in an interview that the target to get tax reforms through Congress and on President Donald Trump's desk before August was "highly aggressive to not realistic at this point".

"It is fair to say it is probably delayed a bit because of the healthcare," Mnuchin told the newspaper. (http://on.ft.com/2oPJlTX)

Mnuchin also told the Financial Times he agreed with Trump's view that the dollar's strength in the short term was hurting exports, but said he saw the currency's strength over the long term as a positive.

"As the world's currency, the primary reserve currency, I think that over long periods of time the strength of the dollar is a good thing," the Financial Times quoted Mnuchin as saying.

Trump has signaled he wants to streamline the income tax system, cut federal regulations, reduce corporate income tax and add new taxes to prod companies to keep or move production to the United States.

U.S.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. on February 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

Trump and Republicans in Congress are also trying to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

But efforts to pass a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal and replace Obamacare failed last month, dealing a major setback to the administration.

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)

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