WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump yesterday cast doubt on the future of the phase one trade deal with China, one of the biggest accomplishments of his first term, saying that he was struggling with Beijing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Look, I'm having a very hard time with China," Mr Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends. "I made a great trade deal months before this whole thing happened. And it was kicking in, you know, a month ago and starting to kick in and starting to produce and then this happens and it sort of overrides so much."
He added: "Nobody else ever made a trade deal with China, because they couldn't do it, because China wouldn't do it, because China had a one-way street to rip off the United States. We were losing US$500 billion (S$707 billion) a year, five hundred.
"And so I'm very torn, I have not decided yet, if you want to know the truth."
His remarks contrasted with statements from Chinese and US officials earlier in the day that followed a phone call between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The two sides agreed to "create favourable conditions" for the phase one trade deal signed in January, officials said, despite recent tensions over the coronavirus pandemic.
"Both sides said they should strengthen macroeconomic and public health cooperation, strive to create a favourable atmosphere and conditions for the implementation of the phase one US-China economic and trade agreement, promoting positive results," a notice from China's Ministry of Commerce said.
US officials said after the call that both parties agreed "good progress" is being made on creating the governmental infrastructures needed for the agreement to become a success.
"They also agreed that in spite of the current global health emergency, both countries fully expect to meet their obligations under the agreement in a timely manner," said the Office of the US Trade Representative and Treasury in a statement.
The phone call was the first time that Mr Liu and Mr Lighthizer have officially spoken about the deal since it was signed in January, which was just before the pandemic hit the world's two biggest economies and upended global supply chains. The deal calls for Mr Liu and Mr Lighthizer to talk every six months.
Last week, Mr Trump threatened new tariffs against China after claiming there was evidence linking Covid-19 to a top-security laboratory in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected late last year. China has denied the claims.
China's purchases so far have been behind the pace needed to reach the target of the first year's US$76.7 billion increase, as imports of US goods fell by 5.9 per cent in the first four months of 2020 from a year ago due to the virus outbreak. Still, some purchases are being made, with China buying six cargoes of soya beans on Thursday and more than 600,000 tonnes of corn recently.
China has also lifted restrictions on a variety of US agricultural imports, including beef and poultry, and scrapped foreign ownership limits in the financial sector.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
