Published 11:06 IST, August 23rd 2020
Trump says he could 'decouple' and not do business with China
US President Donald Trump recently raised the possibility of decoupling the economy from China, which is a major purchaser of US goods.
In the midst of the ongoing rift between Washington and Beijing, US President Donald Trump recently raised the possibility of ‘decoupling’ the economy from China, which is a major purchaser of US goods. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that America ‘doesn’t have to’ do business with China. He said that if China doesn’t treat the US right, then he would ‘certainly decouple’ the US economy from Beijing.
Trump’s comments come after he recently promised that he would entirely end the country’s dependency on the Asian superpower upon his reelection. The US President reportedly spoke about diverting the critical supplies ‘home’. He said that he will fully restore America’s manufacturing independence, bring home critical supply chains and ‘permanently end’ US’ reliance on China.
US-China trade war
Trump and China entered a trade war even before reaching Phase 1 trade deal in January. The US President has even shut the door on Phase 2 negotiations and reportedly said that he was unhappy with Beijing’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also called for American firms to cut all ties with Chinese companies, including Alibaba among others, under the government’s ‘Clean network’ programme.
According to reports, Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on American firm that have rejected government orders on shifting jobs from overseas back to homeland. Meanwhile, Alibaba's show of ‘support’ comes after the tech giant beat quarterly revenue and profit forecast.
Amid tense bilateral relations, Chinese Commerce Ministry on August 20 said China and the United States have agreed to hold trade talks “in the coming days” to evaluate the progress of their 'Phase one' deal. The US-China deal that went on floor in February this year involved China’s commitment to boost the purchase of American goods including agricultural and manufactured products, energy, and services as per earlier reports.
Updated 11:06 IST, August 23rd 2020