Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, has sought to insulate a crucial round of trade negotiations with Beijing from this week’s criminal charges against Huawei, China’s top telecommunications equipment company, which has ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Speaking on Fox Business Network on Tuesday, Mr Mnuchin said the Huawei charges — which were announced by the justice department on Monday — should not be “confused” with the high-level trade negotiations, which are due to kick off on Wednesday.

“You can easily separate these issues,” said Mr Mnuchin, who will be flanking Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, in negotiations with Liu He, Chinese vice-premier. He noted that he did not have advanced knowledge of the indictments against Huawei until Monday.