President Donald Trump shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019. Credit - Susan Walsh—AP President Donald Trump has accused China of "totally violating" itstrade agreement with the U.S. After the U.S. and China continued to raise levies against one another, and amid rising fears of a full-scale trade war, on May 12 both nations agreed to significantly lower their tariffs for a 90-day period. The U.S. vowed to lower import taxes on goods coming from China from an astronomical 145% down to 30%. While China agreed to lower its tariffs from 125% to 10%. It was stated that the actions would be put into effect by May 14, but Trump's latest social media post has called that into question. "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," said Trump viaTruth Socialon Friday morning, claiming that there was "civil unrest" as a result of the high levies."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," Trump continued. "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!" Following Trump's claims of a violated agreement,stock futures slipped. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer echoed Trump's sentimentduring an interview with CNBCon Friday morning, saying that Trump and his advisers are "very concerned" and have been since the marathon trade negotiations in Geneva in early May. "No one can deny that the United States did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the Chinese are slow rolling their compliance, which is completely unacceptable and has to be addressed," said Greer. Meanwhile, on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that negotiations and relations were strained,telling FOX Newsthat talks with China were "a bit stalled.""I believe we will be having more talks with them in the next few weeks, and I believe we may—at some point—have a call between the President and Party Chair Xi [Jinping]," Bessent said. Contact usatletters@time.com.
