Thursday, August 20, 2020

Trump pulls out of meeting with China


 

United States President Donald Trump pulled out of a scheduled Aug. 15 meeting with China.


The meeting was supposed to be a mid-term review of a deal in which China committed to buy more agriculture products from the United States.

However, Reuters reports that China is saying the talks will take place in the next couple of days.


China and the United States have agreed to hold trade talks “in the coming days” to evaluate the progress of their Phase 1 trade deal six months after it took effect in February, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday. 


Ministry spokesman Gao Feng made the comments at a weekly briefing held online, but did not elaborate.


Trump, who is under heavy pressure over his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Tuesday that he pulled out because China is to blame for allowing the virus to spread.


China committed to purchase $12.5 billion of additional ag goods on top of the 2017 baseline amount of $23.8 billion in the first year of the agreement.


At the half-way mark, it has purchased about $8.7 billion of U.S. farm products, or about 24 percent of its commitment for 2020.