US President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating its trade agreement with the United States amid the ongoing tussle over tariffs and counter-tariffs, saying that he has paid so much for being “Mr, Nice Guy!”
Trump claimed that by sealing a trade deal with Beijing in order to save China from what was going to be a very bad situation after he imposed unprecedented 145 per cent tariffs on imports from Asia’s largest economy.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “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. 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. 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!”
This came hours after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that trade negotiations with China were stalled and required direct involvement from President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to move forward. Speaking to Fox News, Bessent highlighted the complexity of the talks and said progress had slowed since the temporary 90-day truce reached earlier this month.
Earlier this month, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Trump administration agreed to drop the 145 per cent tariff imposed last month to 30 per cent. China agreed to lower its tariff rate on US goods to 10 per cent from 125 per cent in response.
The two biggest economies agreed to roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period in a bid to defuse the brewing trade war between them.
The announcement came on the back of the marathon trade negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, the first high-level talks between Washington and Beijing since Trump imposed steep tariffs on Chinese imports.
