Navarro retracts that the trade agreement between the United States and China is “finished”


  • President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, retracted a statement made in an interview that a trade agreement between the United States and China had “ended.”
  • He said China’s oppression of the Uighur Muslim minority, as well as cases of international overreach, jeopardized the deal.
  • The claim made headlines and stock market futures fell 400 points, according to Fox News.
  • However, after the interview, he said the interview had been taken out of context.
  • Later, Trump added, tweeting Monday night that the deal was “completely intact.”
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President Donald Trump’s trade adviser retracted his claim that the US-China trade negotiations ended “hours” after doing so in a Fox News interview.

Peter Navarro made the claim while speaking to Fox presenter Martha MacCallum on Monday.

He criticized China for its handling of the coronavirus, its treatment of Uighur Muslims, and many other examples.

When asked if these things meant that some agreement had “ended”, Navarro said: “It is over. Yes.”

Following the comment, stock market futures fell 400 points in an already volatile market, according to Fox News.

Since then, Navarro said in a White House statement that his comments were taken “wildly out of context” and that the trade deal “continues,” according to Reuters.

Later Monday, Trump was tweeted to emphasize that Navarro’s previous claim had been incorrect. He said: “The China Trade Agreement is completely intact. Hopefully they will continue to comply with the terms of the Agreement!”

In his statement, Navarro said his comments had nothing to do with the trade agreement.

“He was just talking about the lack of confidence we now have from the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and a pandemic in the world,” Reuters reported.

His Fox News interview focused largely on former national security adviser John Bolton, whose upcoming book “The Room Where It Happened” contains much criticism of the President.

Navarro seemed eager to defend the president’s foreign policy record, pointing several points at Bolton’s difficulty in the Middle East. Navarro praised Trump for his handling of tensions with China.

peter navarro fox news china trade agreement

Trade adviser Peter Navarro on Fox News, in an interview when he told Martha MacCallum that the trade agreement between the United States and China was “finished”

Fox News / YouTube


“We as a country … we have to ask ourselves how much we let the Chinese Communist Party escape [with]”he said, citing” ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide “of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.

Following his statement that the trade deal had “ended”, some commentators predicted that it would not be maintained.

Moh Siong Sim, FX analyst at the Bank of Singapore, told Reuters to “take it with a pinch of salt.”

Andrew Brenner, head of international fixed income at Natalliance, told Reuters: “Muzzle this guy … we are confident that his statement will be rejected.”