Appearing on Fox News on Monday evening, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the trade deal with China was off due to the origins of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It’s Over? Regarding the deal, Navarro said, "It's over." He claimed the Chinese knew a “full two months” in advance about the severity of the pandemic as on Jan. 15 when they came to sign the deal.
The news sent futures down more than 200 points in overnight trading. It also prompted Navarro to "clarify" his comments.
'Wildy Out Of Context': "My comments have been taken wildly out of context," Navarro said in a statement. "They had nothing at all to do with the Phase I trade deal, which continues in place. I was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon the world."
Futures pared the earlier losses following Trump's tweet.
China Lied, Americans Died: Navarro decried China’s duplicity by saying, “I think that everybody here inside the perimeter and around this country now understands that China lied, and Americans died.”
Last week, Trump threatened to cut ties with China, just a day after high-level talks were held in Hawaii taking a diametrically opposite position with his trade representative.
"The U.S. certainly does maintain a policy option, under various conditions, of a complete decoupling from China. Thank you!" he said in a June 18 tweet.
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