The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. said his country is still executing the first phase of a trade agreement signed with the U.S. earlier this 2020 and called for both nations to evaluate the changing condition as COVID-19 poses global economic crisis.
According to Ambassador Cui Tiankai in an interview with Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer on the broadcast show Gzero World on April 3, "Even for the last few weeks, when we are faced with this very serious, critical situation, people are still working on the implementation of this phase one deal."
Cui Tiankai appealed for China and the U.S. to be united in tackling the novel coronavirus pandemic and reject attempts to politicize the fatal outbreak.
"As far as I know, we're still doing our part of the deal," Cui said.
The world's two largest economies signed the trade deal to pause a tumultuous tariff war in January before the coronavirus pandemic prevailed and threatened an economic depression across the globe.
Previously, the coronavirus pandemic put China's commitments in a dubious position, British Chancellor Sajid Javid said.
The U.S. cut tariffs on $120 billion worth of China's goods in half and China reciprocating on their end on $75 billion of U.S. goods, including crude oil, cars, and soybeans. Chinese officials have stated that they are devoted to working with the U.S. on eradicating all trade war tariffs.
According to Tiankai, China is still buying agricultural products from the U.S. and is flattening some curbs faced by foreign companies entering the financial market.
The coronavirus is spawning an American (and global) economic crisis of huge proportions.
Tiankai agreed with Bremmer with regard to the changing global economic landscape. "So I just hope our two economic teams, if they can sit down together or just have a conference call, they can really make good assessment of the changing realities and coordinate our response to that."
The pandemic has added more strain to the already tense association between the world's two biggest economies.
U.S. President Donald Trump has applauded the deal as a "groundbreaking" first-term milestone.
The virus means China likely would not be able to meet some of its restricted commitments, namely $40 billion in additional U.S. farm goods purchases for the next two years, admitted U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.
O'Brien added that the virus would certainly interrupt the global supply chain.
It has already had an effect on energy markets, with global demand for crude oil predicted to decline in the first quarter of 2020 for the first time in a decade.
According to U.S. analysts, it is projected that this pandemic will negatively impact up to 80 million jobs of the nation's roughly 153 million, as well as deal with a possible 30 percent body blow to the second quarter of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
The coronavirus outbreak has around 1.6 million confirmed cases and about 106,000 in 214 countries. It is believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
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