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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (May20/07) Geneva, 5 May (D. Ravi Kanth) – The US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has threatened China with “consequences” if, despite the worst economic damage being caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on health and other fronts, it fails to implement the commitments it had agreed in the US-China Phase One trade agreement. During an interview on 4 May with Fox Business channel, the Treasury Secretary said: “I am expecting them (China) to meet their obligations.” Mnuchin was confirming that President Donald Trump is weighing the possibility of retaliation against China over its alleged failure to provide information and remain open about the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mnuchin, regarded as a “dove” in the US-China trade and financial relations, has begun to voice belligerent threats like President Trump. “I have every reason to expect that they honor this (US-China phase one trade agreement) and if they don’t, there would be very significant consequences in the relationship and in the global economy as to how people would do business with them,” Mr. Mnuchin stated. The Treasury Secretary’s warning came close on the heels of President Trump’s bellicose warning at a town hall event sponsored by Fox on 3 May. The President said he will “terminate” the phase-one agreement if Beijing does not make the $250 billion worth of purchases of US products that it had promised. “Now they have to buy and if they don’t buy, we’ll terminate the deal. Very simple,” Mr. Trump said during the meeting, indicating that his administration is going to ratchet-up tensions with Beijing on several fronts. Notwithstanding the grave recessionary conditions and a dramatic slowdown in economic and industrial activities in every country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trump administration appears determined to extract its proverbial pound of flesh from China over Beijing’s alleged failure to comply with the terms of the bilateral trade agreement. President Trump said at the town hall meeting that he has no interest in lifting existing tariffs imposed on China, according to several US media reports. Trump claimed that China – and not US importers – will pay the tariffs, which he said are being used to help out US farmers. “We’re not going to get rid of tariffs,” Mr. Trump insisted. Even the White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro, continued to insist on 4 May that the President is poised to sign an executive order requiring the federal government to purchase medical supplies made in the United States. The executive order – when it comes into effect shortly – could close the doors for the Chinese supplies of protective gloves and other items for fighting Covid-19 in the US. Such a move could also lead to pronounced disruptions in the supply chains of chips and other high-tech equipment. The US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer had already demanded last month that China must comply with its commitments in the US-China phase one agreement. Ambassador Lighthizer had refused last month to reduce tariffs on Chinese goods barring some health-related items for fighting Covid-19. In addition to the likely “consequences” arising from the non-implementation of trade-related commitments, the Trump administration is also engaged in “naming and shaming” China for not being transparent in its disclosure of how the Sars-Cov-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) originated and, also on a vaccine war to combat the Covid-19. Despite repeatedly claiming that the Sars-Cov-2 virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory, the Trump administration has not provided any concrete evidence until now. The World Health Organization’s health emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual briefing on 4 May: “We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus — so from our perspective, this remains speculative.” According to a report in the Guardian on 5 May, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the novel coronavirus most likely originated in a Wuhan market. Several scientists, including those in the WHO, believe that the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat. More importantly, according to the media reports, in the race for a vaccine for Covid-19, China seems to be on the brink of unveiling a vaccine ahead of the US pharmaceutical behemoths. “Should it (China) get there first, success could be used as a national triumph and a platform for global cooperation,” The Economist wrote in its April 18-24 issue. According to a New York Times report on 3 May, as the body bags double each passing day in the US with more than 68,000 lives, the Trump administration seems worried that China’s vaccine may come first before the US elections (in November). After the trade and tech war launched by the US against China, the next big war between Washington and Beijing seems to be on vaccines for new viruses.
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