(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday morning accused China of violating a recent trade agreement with the United States.
The sharp criticism appeared to cast doubt over the staying power of the accord, setting up the possibility of a rekindled trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump said in a social media post Friday morning. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Trump did not identify the action taken by China that had violated the agreement.
The remarks came hours after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent voiced pessimism about U.S.-China trade talks in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night.
“I would say that they are a bit stalled,” Bessent said when asked about the status of the trade talks. “I believe that 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].”
U.S. stocks fell slightly in early trading on Friday morning after the comments from Trump and Bessent.
A trade agreement between the U.S. and China earlier this month slashed tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the two countries, triggering a surge in the stock market and softening recession forecasts on Wall Street.
The U.S. agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China committed to reduce tariffs on U.S. products from 125% to 10%. The lowered tariffs are set to remain in place for 90 days while the two sides negotiate a wider trade deal.
The remaining 30% tariffs imposed on Chinese goods faced a major setback this week, however, when a panel of federal judges struck down the legal justification for the levies.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade late Wednesday invalidated the China tariffs, along with a host of other levies on dozens of countries unveiled in a Rose Garden ceremony that Trump had dubbed “Liberation Day.”
A federal appeals court moved to temporarily reinstate the tariffs on Thursday, leaving the ultimate fate of the policy uncertain.
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