Washington
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will report in a week or two about the level at which China is adhering to the bilateral trade deal that was signed in January.
"I will be able to report on that at the end of next week," he told reporters at the White House, when asked if China is fulfilling its obligations as detailed out in Phase I of the trade deal signed between the two countries in January.
"They are buying a lot of farm product but are they buying to the level that they were supposed to? You know they were going to buy USD 50 billion worth. The most they ever did was USD 15 billion and now they are going to USD 50 billion..., anywhere between USD 40 and 50 billion in terms of farm. But (the total is) USD 250 billion overall. That is something that never happened," he said.
"No president has ever even talked about anything like that. It is about time. I will be able to report in about a week or two as to -- not only with the farmers but with many other industries also," the president said.
Trump refrained from answering a question on imposing tariff on China as a punishment for the spread of coronavirus.
"I do not want to talk about that now. We are in the midst of some very big thing, so I just do not want to talk about that now," he said.
In the past few weeks, several US lawmakers have called for sanctions against China in response to their alleged cover-up of the coronavirus crisis.
"China must be held accountable for its cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak, which led to American lives lost and the devastation of our booming economy," Senator Steve Daines said.
"The Chinese Communist regime withheld information and put the world at risk. Such reckless actions cannot continue to go on without consequences," he said.
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