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WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump said Thursday (April 30) that his trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and threatened new tariffs in Beijing, as his administration worked out measures to retaliation for the outbreak.
Trump’s heightened rhetoric against China reflected his growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic downturn and threatened his chances for reelection in November.
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Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a variety of options were being discussed against China, but cautioned that the efforts were in the early stages. The recommendations have yet to reach the level of Trump’s top national security team or the president, an official told Reuters.
“There is a discussion about how difficult it is to hit China and how to properly calibrate it,” said one source as Washington walks a tightrope in its ties to Beijing as it imports personal protective equipment (PPE) from there and is wary of damaging a sensible trade agreement.
READ: Trump says China “will do everything it can” to lose reelection race
However, Trump made clear that his concerns about China’s role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus were taking priority for now over his efforts to build an initial trade deal with Beijing that had long dominated his dealings with the second economy. biggest in the world.
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“We signed a trade agreement where they are supposed to buy, and they have actually been buying a lot. But that now becomes secondary to what happened with the virus,” Trump told reporters. “The virus situation is simply not acceptable.”
The Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of the internal discussions, reported Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of canceling part of the massive US debt held by China as a way to attack Beijing on the perception of deficit in its frankness in the COVID -19 pandemic.
Trump’s top economic adviser denied the report. “Full faith and credit for US debt obligations are sacrosanct. Period. End point,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters.
READ: Trump blames China for COVID-19 spread, says United States investigates
When asked if he would consider the United States suspending the payment of its debt obligations as a way to punish Beijing, Trump said: “Well, I can do it differently. I can do the same thing, but even for more money, simply by putting about tariffs. So I don’t have to do that. “
WAR OF WORDS
Seeking to quell a damaging trade war, Trump signed a first phase of a multi-billion dollar trade deal with China in January that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese promises to buy more U.S. agricultural, energy, and manufactured goods and address some Complaints of the United States on intellectual property practices.
Tariffs of up to 25 percent are maintained on Chinese imports of goods worth $ 370 billion annually.
Trump has touted his tough stance on China’s trade as a key differentiator from Democratic challengers in the presidential race. Maintaining current tariffs on Chinese products allows you to say that you maintain influence over China for a Phase 2 trade agreement.
READ: Trump launches new volley in word war with Biden over China
Speaking to reporters, Trump declined to say whether he blamed Chinese President Xi Jinping for what he considers to be erroneous information from China when the virus emerged from Wuhan, China, and quickly spread across the world.
A senior Trump administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially accepted in a phone call in late March appeared to have ended.
Washington and Beijing have exchanged increasingly bitter recriminations about the origin of the virus and the response to it.
Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their rhetoric against China, have not directly criticized Xi, whom the President of the United States has repeatedly called his “friend.”
Among the other ideas under consideration for retaliation against China are sanctions, new non-tariff trade restrictions and a possible effort to lift China’s sovereign immunity, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Lifting sovereign immunity could allow the US government. USA And US citizens file lawsuits seeking damages from Beijing in US courts. USA
The options are being discussed informally for now by all government agencies, including the State Department, the White House National Security Council, the Treasury Department and the Pentagon, two of the sources said.
READ: Comment: United States Could Learn One or Two Lessons from China’s Coronavirus
The greatest pressure for action comes from the National Security Council, including deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, while Treasury officials advise caution, sources said.
The talks are at a very preliminary stage and significant action is not considered imminent, the sources said. When asked, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly said that Washington’s priority right now is to fight the virus, but that the time would come to hold China accountable.
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