WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signaled renewed trade tensions with China on Friday, arguing that Beijing had “violated” a deal to de-escalate tariffs, at a time when both sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade talks with China were “a bit stalled,” in an interview with broadcaster Fox News.
The world’s two biggest economies had agreed this month to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs they had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days, after talks between top officials in Geneva.
But on Friday, Trump wrote that: “China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” without providing further details. Asked about the post on CNBC, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer took aim at Beijing for continuing to “slow down and choke off things like critical minerals.”
He added that the United States’ trade deficit with China “continues to be enormous,” and that Washington was not seeing major shifts in Beijing’s behavior.
“The Chinese are slow-rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable,” Greer said.
On Thursday, Bessent suggested that Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping could get involved in the situation.
