White House adviser retracts comments on China deal ‘over’

Washington, June 23 (IANS) White House adviser Peter Navarro has said that the trade deal with China “continues in place” while adding that his earlier comments that the pact was “over” were taken out of context, The Financial Post reported.

US President Donald Trump also confirmed Navarro’s Monday statement in a tweet that the deal was “fully intact.” Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the agreement,” Trump said on Twitter.

Navarro earlier said the trade deal with China is “over,” and he linked the breakdown to Washington’s anger over Beijing’s not sounding the alarm earlier about the coronavirus outbreak.

“It’s over,” Navarro told Fox News in an interview when asked about the trade agreement. He said the “turning point” came when the United States learned about the spreading coronavirus only after a Chinese delegation had left Washington following the signing of the Phase 1 deal on January 15.

“It was at a time when they had already sent hundreds of thousands of people to this country to spread that virus, and it was just minutes after wheels up when that plane took off that we began to hear about this pandemic,” Navarro said.

US-China relations have reached their lowest point in years since the coronavirus pandemic that started in China caused many deaths in the United States. President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly have accused Beijing of not being transparent about the outbreak.

Trump on Thursday renewed his threat to cut ties with China, a day after his top diplomats held talks with Beijing and his trade representative said he did not consider decoupling the US and Chinese economies a viable option.

–IANS

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