Mnuchin warns of tax reform delay following healthcare setback

US 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 has reported.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to reduce the headline corporate tax rate to 15 per cent, while Republicans proposed that a border adjustment tax would be implemented to partly pay for the measure.

Goodbody Stockbrokers said the delay would, “for selfish reasons, be surely welcomed by Irish officials”, although it warned that the threat “is still very much there”.

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

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“It is fair to say it is probably delayed a bit because of the healthcare,” Mr Mnuchin told the newspaper.

Dollar’s strength

Mnuchin also told the Financial Times that he agreed with Mr 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 Mr Mnuchin as saying.

Mr Trump has signalled 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.

Mr Trump and Republicans in Congress are also trying to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. However, efforts to pass a Bill in the House of Representatives to repeal and replace Obamacare failed last month, dealing a major setback to the administration.

– (Additional reporting Reuters)