 "‘Xi of China is extremely hard to make a deal with,’ says Trump amid stalled trade truce")
Amid stalled trade talks, US President Donald Trump has said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “extremely hard” to deal with.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!! (sic)” said Trump on social media on Wednesday.
While Trump did not give any context for his post, the fact that it comes at a time when the United States and China have exchanged accusations of violating the trade truce suggests negotiations are not progressing well.
On May 12, the United States and China reached a truce in their trade war. The two countries agreed to reduce tariffs by 115 per cent for 90 days so that talks could continue for a deal. This meant that US tariffs on Chinese products came down to 30 per cent from 145 per cent and Chinese tariffs on US products came down to 10 per cent from 125 per cent. However, last week, Trump accused China of “totally violating” the truce.
While Trump did not give any reasons, Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump has been frustrated by China not easing the ban on export of rare earth minerals fast enough.
China lashed out at Trump and said it was the United States that had violated the truce.
Trump & China exchange allegations of truce’s violations
In its rebuttal, China said that the United States had violated the truce with three actions.
China said that restrictions on chips’ sale to China, halting the sale of chip design software to China, and announcing revocations of Chinese student visas “severely violated the common understandings reached in Geneva”.
“China firmly opposed this and made strong protests. Let me stress once again that this pressuring and coercion is not the right way to engage with China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Lin Jian further said.
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View AllLin further urged the Trump administration to “respect the facts, stop peddling misinformation, correct relevant wrongdoings, and take concrete moves to uphold the common understandings reached by the two sides”.
Shortage of rare earths rattles manufacturers
On his part, Trump is reportedly frustrated at slow resumption of supplies of rare earths.
Michael Hart, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told Bloomberg that while China has started approving the sale of rare earths, the pace is “certainly slower than industry would like”.
As China produces up 90 per cent of world’s rare earths and magnets, export restrictions have rattled industries that rely heavily on these supplies, such as automakers, with Hildegard Muller, the President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, saying that “if the situation is not changed quickly, production delays and even production outages can no longer be ruled out”.
Alarm is not sounding in the United States, but the situation is such that diplomats, automakers, and other executives from India, Japan, and Europe have been urgently seeking meetings with Chinese officials to seek faster approval of rare earths, sources told Reuters.
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