Pandemic clouds US-China trade deal: Trump

Published May 15, 2020
In this June 29, 2019 photo, US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping pose ahead of their bilateral meeting during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan.—Reuters
In this June 29, 2019 photo, US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping pose ahead of their bilateral meeting during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan.—Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was very disappointed in China over its failure to contain the novel coronavirus, and that the worldwide pandemic had cast a pall over his trade deal with Beijing.

The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, in December, was spreading as the United States and China signed a Phase 1 trade deal in January that was hailed by the Republican president as a major achievement.

“I’m very disappointed in China,” Trump said in an interview broadcast on Fox Business Network.

“They should have never let this happen. So I make a great trade deal and now I say this doesn’t feel the same to me. The ink was barely dry and the plague came over. And it doesn’t feel the same to me,” he said.

The US president’s pique extended to Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom, Trump has said repeatedly, he has a good relationship.

“But I just right now I don’t want to speak to him. I don’t want to speak to him,” Trump said.

Under the Phase 1 agreement, Beijing pledged to buy at least $200 billion in additional US goods and services over two years while Washington agreed to roll back tariffs on Chinese goods in stages.

A Chinese state-run newspaper has reported that some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalidating the agreement.

Trump said again he was not interested in renegotiating.

Trump was asked about a Republican senator’s suggestion that US visas be denied to Chinese students applying to study in fields related to national security, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

“There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut off the whole relationship,” he replied.

“Now, if you did, what would happen? You’d save $500bn if you cut off the whole relationship,” Trump said, referring to estimated US annual imports from China, which Trump often refers to as lost money.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2020

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

Ultimate price
02 Nov, 2024

Ultimate price

AS the world marks the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists today, the dangers...
Mastung bombing
02 Nov, 2024

Mastung bombing

INSTABILITY continues to haunt Balochistan, as Friday morning’s bombing in Mastung has shown. At least nine...
Plane speak
02 Nov, 2024

Plane speak

DESPITE all its efforts to facilitate PIA’s privatisation, it seems the government only ended up being taken for a...
Seeking investment
Updated 01 Nov, 2024

Seeking investment

Foreign visits will be fruitless unless crucial structural, policy reforms directly affecting investors are focused.
State-backed terror
01 Nov, 2024

State-backed terror

OVER the past year or so, India’s reportedly malign activities in foreign countries have increasingly come under the radar, with
Shared crisis
01 Nov, 2024

Shared crisis

WITH Lahore experiencing unprecedented levels of smog, the Punjab government has announced a series of “green...