Pres. Donald Trump
(Photo : Reuters Connect)

President Donald Trump said that he could cut off the relationship with China and that includes the trade agreement that worth more than $500 billion, according to a recently published article. 

U.S.-China Trade Agreement

Early this year, the U.S. and China signed a trade agreement which is expected to strengthen the economic relationship of the two economic giants in the world. The agreement is the result of long talks and discussions between the two countries.

Last year, China Commerce Ministry spokesperson announced that both U.S. and the Chinese government have agreed that they will lift the imposed tariffs simultaneously that worth $11 billion. Additionally, the American government agreed to this provided that both countries will remove the same amount at the same time.

However, this trade agreement seems to be affected because of the global pandemic that stained the relationship between the two countries. It has been reported many times that if China was only being transparent in reporting the existence of the new coronavirus early last year, the contagion could be controlled. 

Meanwhile, China is doing their part as well by helping other countries around the world to combat COVID-19 like sending their medical experts and giving personal prtective equipment to the healthcare workers.

President Trump Said that He Could Cut Off the Relationship With China

Peter Navarro, the White House Trade Adviser, already said in the previous week that COVID-19 is more important than the trade agreement. This is also what is on the mind of Pres. Trump who believed that China has somehow mishandled the virus.

Now, the more than $500 billion trade agreement between the U.S. and China is now on the brink. Pres. Trump said during an interview that he may consider halting it with Washington and Beijing amid the pandemic.

However, this decision takes time because China is one of the biggest partners of U.S. in terms of economic trade before the agreement. Trump said in the same interview : "There are many things we could do. We could cut off the whole relationship. Now if you did, what would happen? You'd save $500 billion if you cut off the whole relationship."

Moreover, Trump is referring to the $500 billion worth of imports from China in 2018. He said this because of the President's disappointment on how China contained and controlled the virus which originated from Wuhan.

Now, the Trump administration is thinking about making a proposal to possibly punish or ask for financial compensation from China because of failing to provide more information about the new coronavirus. 

Moreover, there are many investigations conducted to determine the source of the virus particularly in China. However, the allegation against China is not yet proven. 

Sen. Tom Cotton from Arkansas said: "There's no question that Xi Jinping and senior officials in the Chinese Communist Party were pressuring the [World Health Organization] all the way back to December to undersell the risk of this virus.'

He also added: "Look, they knew in China early on, probably as early as the early days of December, that this virus was both highly contagious among humans and it was very deadly for certain people. Yet they wanted to save face." 

It can also be remembered in the previous report of Latin Post that China did not report immediately to the World Health Organization the presence of SARS-like virus at that time within 24 hours which violates the WHO revised health and safety guidelines to avoid the pandemic. 

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