President Donald Trump is putting pressure on China to fulfill its commitment in the phase-one of the trade agreement inked earlier this year. The president threatened to “terminate” the agreement unless China adheres to the terms.
President Trump promised that he will give an update next week on the progress of the deal, according to Fox Business. “I will be able to report on that by the end of next week,” he responded when asked if he is satisfied with how the trade deal with China is progressing.
Donald Trump expects China to increase its importation of farm products. “They were going to buy $50 billion worth, the most they ever bought was 15 or 16 and now they are going to 50,” he said. “$250 billion overall, that's never happened. No president has ever talked about that.”
The President said that they are keeping tabs on China’s actions. “We're watching the deal very closely,” Trump added. “They understand. They have a deal and hopefully, they are going to keep it. They may or they may not, we'll see.”
Earlier, Donald Trump threatened to “terminate” the inked trade deal if China does not stick to its details, according to Time. Under the agreement, China is supposed to buy an additional $200 billion worth of U.S. goods and services in the next two years based on 2017’s level.
However, the Chinese importation of U.S. goods is behind the pace needed to match the $76.7 billion increase this year. In fact, there was a 5.9 percent decrease in imports from the U.S. in the first four months this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But for Trump, the current pandemic is not an excuse to fail meeting the targets set in the trade agreement. Doing so would simply mean its termination.
“Now they have to buy,” Trump said on Sunday. “And if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal, very simple.”
Top U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators are set to teleconference next week to iron out details on the implementation of the deal. According to Time, China will be represented by Vice Premier Liu He while the U.S. will be represented by Robert Lighthizer.
