BEIJING/WASHINGTON (REUTERS, AFP) – US President Donald Trump said on Monday (May 11) he opposed renegotiating the US-China “Phase 1” trade deal after a Chinese state-run newspaper reported some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalidating the agreement. 

Mr Trump, who himself has considered abandoning the pact signed in January, told a White House press briefing he wanted to see if Beijing lived up to the deal to massively increase purchases of US goods. 

“No, not at all. Not even a little bit,” Mr Trump said when asked if he would entertain the idea of reworking Phase 1. “I’m not interested. We signed a deal. I had heard that too, they’d like to reopen the trade talk, to make it a better deal for them.”

“Let’s see if they live up to the deal that they signed,” he added. 

The Global Times tabloid reported on Monday that unidentified advisers close to the talks have suggested that Chinese officials revive the possibility of invalidating the trade pact and negotiate a new one to tilt the scales more to the Chinese side. 

The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party. While not an official party mouthpiece, the Global Times’ views are believed at times to reflect those of its leaders. 

New soybean purchases 

Hours after the report was published, Chinese importers on Monday bought at least four cargoes, or about 240,000 tonnes, of US soybeans on Monday for shipment beginning in July, and additional sales are possible, two traders familiar with the deals said on Monday. 

The purchases were the latest in a recent string by China, which US officials say has also begun implementing other parts of the trade deal regarding intellectual property protections. 

The US Trade Representative’s office did not respond to repeated queries on the Global Times article. 

Washington and Beijing reached a partial trade deal in January. Under the Phase 1 deal signed in January, Beijing pledged to buy at least US$200 billion (S$283 billion) in additional US goods and services over two years while Washington agreed to roll back tariffs in stages on Chinese goods. 

As recently as last Friday, Vice-Premier Liu He, who had led China’s negotiations, spoke by phone with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and confirmed that both sides agreed to implementing the first phase of the deal. 

Yet hours after the agreement from the top trade officials from both countries, Mr Trump – who has blamed China’s early handling of the new coronavirus outbreak in its central city of Wuhan for thousands of US deaths and millions of job losses – said he was“very torn” about whether to end the Phase 1 trade deal.

‘Tsunami of anger’ 

Rising US-China tensions over the coronavirus outbreak have cast the trade deal and proposed talks on a Phase 2 deal into doubt. 

The Trump administration has accused China of taking too long to warn the world about the epidemic, and therefore to blame for the virus spreading around the world and triggering the global economic crisis. 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has even said claimed that the coronavirus pandemic likely originated in a Chinese laboratory – an allegation that China has vehemently rejected – but acknowledged there was no certainty. 

On Monday, a new source of tension opened up, with reports that the administration is planning to issue a warning that computer hackers tied to the Chinese government are attempting to steal information from US researchers. 

US intelligence and law enforcement officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The Global Times said malicious attacks by the United States have ignited a “tsunami of anger” among Chinese trade insiders after China made compromises in the Phase 1 pact. 

“It’s in fact in China’s interests to terminate the current Phase 1 deal,” a trade adviser to the Chinese government told the Global Times, citing the weakening US economy and upcoming U.S. presidential elections.

“The US now cannot afford to restart the trade war with China if everything goes back to the starting point.” Mr Clete Willems, a former White House trade adviser who took an active role in the US-China negotiations, said China had followed through on the majority of the structural provisions in the Phase 1 deal, including new rules to protect intellectual property. 

“I don’t think we’re at the point where we should give up on the deal. It has yielded positive results thus far,” said Mr Willems, who is now with the Akin Gump law firm in Washington. 

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