Trump threatens new tariffs on China as U.S. mulls retaliatory action over virus

By Jeff Mason, Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Chinese flags are seen before Defense Secretary James Mattis welcomes Chinese Minister of National Defense Gen. Wei Fenghe to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his hard-fought trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.

 

Trump's sharpened rhetoric against China reflected his growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.

 

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options against China were under discussion, but cautioned that efforts were in the early stages. Recommendations have not yet reached the level of Trump’s top national security team or the president, one official told Reuters.

 

"There is a discussion as to how hard to hit China and how to calibrate it properly," one of the sources said as Washington walks a tightrope in its ties with Beijing while it imports personal protection equipment (PPE) from there and is wary of harming a sensitive trade deal.

 

Trump made clear, however, that his concerns about China's role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus were taking priority for now over his efforts to build on an initial trade agreement with Beijing that long dominated his dealings with the world's second-largest economy.

 

"We signed a trade deal where they're supposed to buy, and they've been buying a lot, actually. But that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus," Trump told reporters. "The virus situation is just not acceptable."

 

The Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported on Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of cancelling some of the massive U.S. debt held by China as a way to strike at Beijing for perceived shortfalls in its candidness on the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Trump's top economic adviser denied the report. "The full faith and credit of U.S. debt obligations is sacrosanct. Period. Full stop," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters.

 

Asked whether he would consider having the United States stop payment of its debt obligations as a way to punish Beijing, Trump said: "Well, I can do it differently. I can do the same thing, but even for more money, just by putting on tariffs. So, I don't have to do that."

 

WAR OF WORDS

Seeking to quell a damaging trade war, Trump signed a first phase of a multibillion-dollar trade deal with China in January that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese pledges to purchase more American farm, energy and manufactured goods and address some U.S. complaints about intellectual property practices.

 

Tariffs of up to 25% remain on some $370 billion worth of Chinese goods imports annually.

 

Trump has touted his tough stance on China trade as a key differentiator from Democratic challengers in the presidential race. Keeping tariffs in place on Chinese goods allows him to say he is maintaining leverage over China for a Phase 2 trade deal.

 

Speaking to reporters, Trump declined to say whether he held Chinese President Xi Jinping responsible for what he feels is misinformation from China when the virus emerged from Wuhan, China, and quickly spread around the world.

 

A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March appeared to be over.

 

Washington and Beijing have traded increasingly bitter recriminations over the origin of the virus and the response to it.

 

Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their anti-China rhetoric, have stopped short of directly criticizing Xi, whom the U.S. president has repeatedly called his “friend.”

 

Among the other ideas under consideration for retaliation against China are sanctions, new non-tariff trade restrictions and a possible effort to lift China’s sovereign immunity, two sources familiar with the matter said.

 

Lifting sovereign immunity could allow the U.S. government and American citizens to file lawsuits seeking damages from Beijing in U.S. courts.

 

The options are being discussed, informally for now, across government agencies including the State Department, White House National Security Council, Treasury Department and Pentagon, two of the sources said.

 

The strongest pressure for action is coming from the National Security Council, including deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, while Treasury officials are advising caution, the sources said.

 

Conversations are at a very preliminary stage and significant action is not considered imminent, the sources said. When asked, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly said Washington's priority at the moment is to fight the virus but that the time to hold China accountable would come.

 

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason, David Brunnstrom, Andrea Shalal and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-01

 

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Re-election is the top priority

Yeaaaa now we can pay more for everything wreck a few more farmers all because trump needs a distraction just pathetic this is a time when the planet should be pulling together not political squabbling 

from the comments people seem more prone to bitch about trump likenits some personal vendetta these people have than take the commie chinese threat seriously. Have these people been living under a shell? Wake up!! Atleast Trumps trying to come up with ways in which the world can stop funding their own demise. 

6 minutes ago, Tug said:

Yeaaaa now we can pay more for everything wreck a few more farmers all because trump needs a distraction just pathetic this is a time when the planet should be pulling together not political squabbling 

Such a myopic viewpoint.  Political squabbling?  That's what you call Trump's response to the unleashing of a deadly pandemic by China?  There will be h3ll to pay.

A post using a trolling reference to Trump and the reply has been removed. 

he does get some things right

I think Trump is senile idiot! But not go for that. 

US own China 1.09 trillion $. Do you think now is best time to start new trade war. US economy situation is so strong  now to do that!!!! Only shoot in own leg. Even don't pay back what own now China don't care a F. They have money enough! US have also?

Yes virus start from China and that is really bad thing. But if have evidence that goming from lab then show that. And not only bla bla bla for coming election! All who believe Trump say hes idiot talks have take out of context! You should move back to US from Quebec that you learn to listen English again! Even im not native English speaker i understand what he say he always really mean that!

After frog's have come out from hes mouth, he chance next day what have say before!

Whether some like it or not there is a lot of suspicion directed towards China since this virus appeared.

 

And a lot of anger. Ask working people back in the real world who have been affected by it and who have had their lives and plans disrupted and often ruined by what they recognise as the Wuhan Plague.

 

Those who live a sheltered existence in the backwoods of Thailand are rarely affected by it.

 

A friend of mine in London just lost his older brother to CV19 in a matter of weeks. He now hates the Chinese and anything to do with China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

Such a myopic viewpoint.  Political squabbling?  That's what you call Trump's response to the unleashing of a deadly pandemic by China?  There will be h3ll to pay.

Ahhhh you are assuming or perhaps stating that China let the virus out on purpose?that sir is an act of war the virus originated in the wuhan market it sucks it’s a bad thing but I don’t think it was done on purpose that beeing said working together to rid ourselves of this scourge is much more appropriate this accusation of China unleashing it is unconstructive to put it mildly and blindingly (unproductive)

Screw the ccp, 

2 hours ago, yogi100 said:

Whether some like it or not there is a lot of suspicion directed towards China since this virus appeared.

 

And a lot of anger. Ask working people back in the real world who have been affected by it and who have had their lives and plans disrupted and often ruined by what they recognise as the Wuhan Plague.

 

Those who live a sheltered existence in the backwoods of Thailand are rarely affected by it.

 

A friend of mine in London just lost his older brother to CV19 in a matter of weeks. He now hates the Chinese and anything to do with China.

And you think it's relevant how your friend feels?

And is it relevant how your friend feels about BJ's botched response to the pandemic? If he forgives him should we all do likewise?

6 hours ago, Tug said:

Yeaaaa now we can pay more for everything wreck a few more farmers all because trump needs a distraction just pathetic this is a time when the planet should be pulling together not political squabbling 

The Blame game from China started this Drama 

They will pay, it's just a matter of how much, when and over how long.

 

The rest of the world hasn't even started seeking punitive damages yet but they will.

 

Allowing it to spread outside of China is what they're going to be paying for. They turned an internal economic nightmare of a problem for China into a problem for everyone and it looks to me like they chose to share the problem rather than suffer it alone.

 

China will be paying its debt for generations to come.

Let M Obama handle it when she becomes VP next year...

5 hours ago, Tug said:

Ahhhh you are assuming or perhaps stating that China let the virus out on purpose?that sir is an act of war the virus originated in the wuhan market it sucks it’s a bad thing but I don’t think it was done on purpose that beeing said working together to rid ourselves of this scourge is much more appropriate this accusation of China unleashing it is unconstructive to put it mildly and blindingly (unproductive)

Please show us where anyone stated it was intentionally released, once again you are making false statements and spreading rumors.

China should be held accountable for their negligent actions and follow up misinformation,

 

Trump saw this coming, he was warned, yet he did nothing. Case closed.

Once again Trump showing strong leadership and telling it like it is.   Dems should watch and learn.  Their socialist ideal of pandering to every self interest or non caucasian group at the expense of the many continues to be the greatest threat to the lifestyle that we all take for granted.  Fortunately the majority of the public will soon sweep this left wing stupidity aside once again

5 hours ago, pegman said:

So the Chinese knew that Trump would so badly respond to the pandemic that it would cost him the election? Where do people come up with these gems? FOX NEWS, Breitbart, InfoWars....? Funny how this article hasn't a single reference about Chinese retaliation. What are the chances Trump's soy bean farmer base gets whacked again? 

 

Electorate opinion on Trump's handling of the pandemic is running behind every single state governor. He needs a straw man fast to blame for his  administration's gross misconduct in responding to the virus. He has tried blaming Obama but few are buying that.  Yesterday he threatened to sue his pollster for his bad polls. . 

Being an Englishman I know very little about Fox News and nothing at all about Breitbart, and InfoWars. Nor do I know about soy bean farmers getting whacked nor who's whacked them.

 

I'm just looking at the tension that has arisen between Trump and China over recent developments. Which is what this topic is basically about.

 

I blame China for CV19 not Trump. Even though some may claim it was Trump and the CIA who actually released the virus.

5 hours ago, frenetic said:

And you think it's relevant how your friend feels?

And is it relevant how your friend feels about BJ's botched response to the pandemic? If he forgives him should we all do likewise?

Do you not think it possible and relevant that many people will never forgive China for the consequences of their actions regarding CV19.

 

Especially those who have lost loved ones and close friends. I think it's relevant.

9 hours ago, yogi100 said:

Whether some like it or not there is a lot of suspicion directed towards China since this virus appeared.

 

And a lot of anger. Ask working people back in the real world who have been affected by it and who have had their lives and plans disrupted and often ruined by what they recognise as the Wuhan Plague.

 

Those who live a sheltered existence in the backwoods of Thailand are rarely affected by it.

 

A friend of mine in London just lost his older brother to CV19 in a matter of weeks. He now hates the Chinese and anything to do with China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm glad four of you think it's funny. I'm not sure my bereaved friend would share your sense of humour.

Off topic posts and replies about the war with Japan in 1941 have been removed. 

Another of Trump’s diversion. Have we not see this time and time again and yet there are people still fall for this. Russia hoax, Ukraine conspiracy, fake news etc etc and now this finding scrape goat for his pathetic mismanagement of the pandemic.   
 

China is no longer the weak country when the countries can simply forced under gunpoint for slice of their territory and took their resources. Xi is a nationalist and he will not back off any fight. The people are nationalistic and united against external threats. They have a large war chest in terms of foreign reserves and gold and most of all their citizens are resilient and willing to scarify for the country. 
 

International institutions provide no meaningful way to force China. The UN Security Council supreme lawmaking and executive body in international law can’t hold China to account because of China and Russia veto power. Even if a court of arbitration was to judge China responsible, they could simply ignore any decision. 
 

China is embedded in the world economy and when China sneeze, the world will catch a cold. Foreign investors didn’t invest in China without a careful evaluation of the risks and costs and rewarded by a high domestic market and cheap production costs which kept US inflation low. US is a country of debts held up by selling treasuries to countries like China. China is an integral and important factor in supporting the dollar. There are much at stake for both economies and the world if they collide. Either Trump is dumb not to know this zero sum game or he is just posturing and really has no guts to follow this through. He is just diverting attention to his failing reelection.

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, CaptRon2 said:

Please show us where anyone stated it was intentionally released, once again you are making false statements and spreading rumors.

China should be held accountable for their negligent actions and follow up misinformation,

 

They're hardly going to admit they released it on purpose even if they did.

 

And if they did how can any Western organisation prove it.

As the leaked document said : attack China.

 

Risible. If it wasn't so tragic.

"Whether some like it or not there is a lot of suspicion directed towards China since this virus appeared".

because people are narrow minded Bigots or fail to do research. The fault does not lie with China but individual governments, People claim with no evidence that it escaped from a lab. not just any lab mind you but the only lab in China with BSL4 security of which there are fewer thab 120 in the world and only one in China.  So China orders all non secure labs to stop testing for genome sequence and to stoop tetsing, destroy all records  etc  in order to safeguard the possibility of any  escape. The US CDC told alll labs during the H1N1 virus to stop testing as well, But China is then blamed for doing this,

To me it seemed a sensible precaution. If the virus had  escaped  from the labs in other cities  i wonder who would be blamed.

next People blame China for lying about the figures. There are two aspects to this, firstly Local officials did lie during the party conference season. For 16 days  they supressed the figures and failed to report to central government, 

Wheher this would have made a difference is debateable, Certianly no travel restrictions etc in the early stages had been implemented for any previous pandemic by the country that was the epicentre.  While the Wuhan and Hubei politicians were lying the medical profession was communicating a stream of medical information to the world, ( i am not talking here about supposed whistleblowers as there none. DR, Li and Dr. Ai fen  et all got it completely wrong and they only released the information on a private wechat room. They never went public , indeed Dr. Li was horrified that the news got out,).

Information was widely available from mid Jan onwards  in medical jjournals both in the west and in China. Additionaly there were also many articles discussing the progress of the disease in China on the net.   On Jan1st to 3rd the acting US secretary Redfield was informed of the situation by the head of the Chinese CDC.   According to the new york times he was rattled and took the warnings seriously. Indeed one of them was moved to tears by the events. The other problem about numbers is this was a new virus, tests had not been done and also not all private hospitals were reporting the cases. NOr did they have information of those ill at home. This was true too in the US  its CDC complained about the failure f States to report during the H1N1 crisiis.Initially there was a problem of what counted- those tested positive or those who had the symptoms 

Figues will always be incorrect until much later. It took two years of study before the final figures for SARs were published and accepted.

The next claim was that China hid the fact that it could be transmitted from Human to Human. and the Who played along.

Whilst this may be true of the public pronouncements of the WHO the technical notes that adjoined the report were warning of the strong likelihood of human to human transmission as the Guardian report states. As For China, Doctors at first thought the disease was infectious but did not know if it was contagious. Once they began to suspect it was they still did not know what the method of transmission was. After all HIV (another virus) is contagious but you cannot catch it standing next to someone etc. It was not till definite proof filtered through that they decided it definitely was contagious  through droplets form infected patients.

Doctors suspected Human to Human transmission  but they had no definite proof. As Dr Zhang says

"If it is me doing the research, how could I tell the public before I have come to a clear conclusion? We should always take a cautious, scientific attitude towards releasing such information to the public."

  Look what happened when a lockdown was ordered for the next day 140,000 people fled in one day. How many of the three milllion that left before were the result of panic as a result of the 

leaked news from DR. Li and his cohorts. 

Western governments had know of the problem  since  Dec 31. they knew of the possible severity from mid January long before any infected person appeared in their country. They had the genome sequence and patient profiles and the tretment regime thaT Chinese doctors were using.  It is not the responsibility of Chiina if they allowed people into their countries and did little about it.. it is a bit like someone sees a bush fire far off coming your way but you do nothing about it as the people where the fire started have not told you a fire exists.

it is not the responsibility of China that the uK failed to respond to warnings as far back as 3 years ago that the NHS could not cope with a pandemic unless things changed.Instead there were more cuts. The Uk also failed to follow the lead of more successful countries with rapid testing etc. Instead they accepted rubbish research that stated well they will get it anyway so develop herd immunity.  The person who blames China is blaing the wrong group. They should look to what their own governments failed to do But it is all to simple to blame someone else.

 

 

 

 

 

         

When will Americans realize who pays the bill for all these extra tariffs? Here a hint: It's not the Chinese. 

He’s also doing the classic trump tactic of threatening to burn them for the debt cnn just mentioned it

1 hour ago, yogi100 said:

Do you not think it possible and relevant that many people will never forgive China for the consequences of their actions regarding CV19.

 

Especially those who have lost loved ones and close friends. I think it's relevant.

And others will blame China and put a big part of the blame at the botched responses from Trump and Johnson.

Should China be punished for their actions/inaction during the Covid-19 scare ?  How does the rest of the world encourage China to act differently when the next corona virus is unleashed?