President Trump on Friday said that China is violating a trade agreement with the U.S., just weeks after the two countries agreed to a temporary but significant easing of tariffs imposed on each other’s imports earlier in the year.
Mr. Trump didn’t specify in what way he believes China is violating the agreement. On May 12, the two nations committed to a 90-day suspension of most of the levies imposed since early April.
Under the agreement, the U.S. reduced tariffs on Chinese goods to about 30% from 145%, while China reduced its levies on American imports to 10%.
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Friday morning on his Truth Social app.
He added, “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!”
As part of the agreement, China also said it would also ease some nontariff barriers. That could include resuming export of rare earths to U.S. customers, High Frequency Economics said at the time.
Rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries, could be at the heart of Mr. Trump’s complaint, said equities analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge on Friday.
“There have been reports in recent days that Beijing was dragging its feet on increasing rare earth exports (which is why Washington ratcheted up restrictions this week on certain technology sales to China), and this could be what prompted Trump’s post,” Crisafulli said in a client note.
The accusation comes shortly after Mr. Trump’s trade agenda went through a legal whiplash. On Wednesday, a federal court froze most of his sweeping tariffs on virtually every foreign nation, which he had announced on April 2 as part of his strategy to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. and raise trillions in new federal revenue.
But on Thursday, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., temporarily halted the federal trade court’s decision, effectively allowing the tariffs to continue for now.
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