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White House's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow, File Photo
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The White House's top economic adviser said Friday (May 15, 2020) that the US-China "Phase 1" has arrived in January. The trade agreement is not going to be broken and the two countries are still working to implement it. But President Donald Trump added that he was not "thrilled" by the deal.
Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House the trade deal “is continuing,” a day after Trump suggested he could cut ties with the world’s second-largest economy.
In an interview with Fox Business Network broadcast on Thursday, Trump said he was very disappointed with China’s failure to contain the coronavirus outbreak and that the pandemic had cast a pall over the trade deal with Beijing that he considers a major achievement.
Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have spiked in recent weeks, with officials on both sides suggesting the hard-fought trade deal that defused a bitter 18-month trade war could be abandoned.
Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, was asked if the trade deal was falling apart. “Absolutely not,” he said.
The Chinese are working toward holding up their end of the agreement, which calls for Beijing to boost purchases of American farm goods, manufactured products, energy and services by $200 billion over two years, Kudlow said.
“They’re a little slow on the commodity purchases. I think that has a lot to do with market and economic positions,” he said.
Kudlow’s comments came at the end of a week of complaints from Trump about China’s early handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and separate steps by his government to crack down on China’s blacklisted telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies HWT.UL and curb U.S. investment in some Chinese companies.
On Thursday, Trump said he now feels differently about the trade deal and may even cut economic ties with Beijing. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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