Trump says China ‘totally violated’ tariff truce after US warns trade talks have ‘stalled’
“The very high tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to trade into the United States,” Trump wrote. He claimed the abrupt halt in trade had devastating effects, leading to factory closures and “civil unrest” in China.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, (AP Photo)
US President Donald Trump Friday signalled a fresh escalation in trade tensions with China, accusing Beijing of having “totally violated” a recently negotiated deal with Washington, despite what he called a “fast deal” meant to help stabilise China’s “grave economic danger!”.
“The very high tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to trade into the United States,” Trump wrote. He claimed the abrupt halt in trade had devastating effects, leading to factory closures and “civil unrest” in China.
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However, he accused China of failing to uphold its end of the agreement. “The bad news is that China… HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump said. Ending the post on a sour note, he added, “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
His comments, made in a Truth Social post, come at a time when negotiations between the world’s two largest economies appear to be stalling.
Soon after his comments, Beijing on Friday issued a response, however, it did not address the US claims directly but urged the US to “cease discriminatory restrictions against China”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s statement while speaking to Fox News on Thursday, that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled,” had a note of hope — that Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping might eventually speak directly to break the deadlock.
In his post, Trump also said that he intervened out of concern for China’s economic stability, not for the US, and struck a deal to ease the situation. “Everything quickly stabilised and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!!” he wrote.
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The deal in question had seen both nations agree to reduce staggering tariffs for 90 days—Washington lowered additional tariffs from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, while Beijing cut its own import taxes levied on the US from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
Trump, however, did not specify how China had violated the agreement, though his comments mark an escalation in tensions between the two biggest economies in the world.
Earlier, US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, in an interview with CNBC said that the Trump administration has “been very focused on monitoring Chinese compliance, or in this case, noncompliance, with the agreement.”
‘Cease discriminatory restrictions’
China on Friday called on the US to “immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China, and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva.”
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A spokesperson from the Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing had “repeatedly raised concerns” with the US over what it described as the “abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector.” The US already maintains restrictions on technology exports to China and, on Wednesday, further escalated tensions by pausing additional sales of chip technologies, along with exports of key chemicals and machinery essential to semiconductor production.
Pengyu Liu, a representative from the embassy, noted that both sides had continued to engage in dialogue since the Geneva talks on 11 May, which he said had concluded on a positive note.
