President Donald Trump said that China has “totally violated” its tariff agreement with the United States.
“Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, ‘civil unrest.’ I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual,” he wrote. “Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
The U.S. and China released a joint statement on May 12 that recognized the “importance of a sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship” and sought to move forward “in the spirit of mutual opening, continued communication, cooperation, and mutual respect.” The countries agreed to suspend “24 percentage points” for an “initial period of 90 days.”
According to the statement, the U.S. and China would seek to “establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations.”
