US President Donald Trump said yesterday that China had violated an agreement with the US to mutually roll back tariffs and trade restrictions for critical minerals and issued a new veiled threat to get tougher with Beijing.
“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. Trump said that he made a “fast deal” in mid-May with Chinese officials for both countries to back away from triple-digit tariffs for 90 days. He said he did this to save China from a “devastating” situation, factory closings and civil unrest caused by his tariffs of up to 145 per cent on Chinese imports.
Trump’s message did not specify how China had violated the agreement made in Geneva, Switzerland, or what action he would take against Beijing.
But a US official told Reuters that it appears China was moving slowly on promises to issue export licenses for rare earths minerals. The deal called for China to lift trade countermeasures that restrict its exports of the critical metals needed for US semiconductor, electronics and defense production.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC that the flow of critical minerals from China has not resumed as called for by the Geneva agreement.
“The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and it has to be addressed,” Greer said, without specifying how that would happen.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, said China has maintained communications on trade matters with US counterparts since the Geneva talks, but raised concerns about US export controls.
Reuters reported earlier this week that the US has ordered a broad swath of companies to stop shipping goods to China without a license and revoked some existing export licenses, according to three people familiar with the matter.
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