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(Bloomberg) -- Former United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he’s more alarmed by the country’s growing budget deficit than its trade imbalances, and urged Washington to prioritize fiscal repair.

“I’m very concerned,” he said during a panel discussion at the Qatar Economic Forum on Wednesday. “The budget deficit is a larger concern to me than the trade deficit. So I’m on the side of, I hope we do get more spending cuts — something that’s very important.”

Mnuchin, who now runs private equity firm Liberty Strategic Capital, ran the Treasury during Donald Trump’s first term in office.

He spoke in a week of intensified focus on US fiscal matters following a debate throughout the night by House lawmakers on the president’s plan for tax cuts, just days after the country lost its last remaining top credit score.

While Mnuchin acknowledged fallout on the market for US Treasuries from the downgrade decision by Moody’s Ratings, he insisted that America remains the most secure sovereign borrower globally.

What the US Losing Its Last AAA Credit Rating Means: QuickTake

“I still see us as a AAA credit, regardless of what the rating agencies say,” he said. “I’d still rather buy US government securities than any other so-called AAA out there.”

Mnuchin said the Fed’s current pause on interest-rate changes, combined with the scale of deficits Washington must finance, will likely keep upward pressure on yields.

On the legislative front, Mnuchin said he expects progress on the tax bill by early summer despite “some issues that still need to be resolved.”

The government of the State of Qatar is the underwriter of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg