Conflicting talk from Trump administration officials about “decoupling” the U.S. economy from China is running into a challenging reality: Chinese imports of U.S. goods are rising, investment by American companies into China continues, and markets are wary of separating the world’s biggest economies.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro gave Asian markets a scare on Monday night by telling Fox News Channel that the U.S.-China trade deal was “over.” U.S. stock futures dropped, the dollar rose, and volatility indices climbed.
Navarro quickly backtracked on Monday night, saying he was referring to a lack of trust between the United States and China over the coronavirus outbreak. President Donald Trump also quickly tweeted that the deal was intact.
On Tuesday, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow praised Beijing, telling Fox Business Network “they’ve actually picked up their game” when it comes to the trade deal.
The damage-control efforts by the Trump administration come after Trump said last week that “a complete decoupling from China” was an option, overruling U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who had told lawmakers that decoupling was not realistic.
The Trump re-election campaign has made being "tough on China" a key part of his platform here The White House has blamed Beijing for the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 120,000 Americans, more than any other country.
STRONG INVESTMENT U.S. companies had announced $2.3 billion in new direct investment projects in the first quarter of 2020, only slightly down from last year's quarterly average despite the coronavirus, the Rhodium Group said in a recent study here - indicating that few U.S. companies are reducing their China footprint.
Bill Reinsch, a senior adviser and trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it took over 20 years for the U.S. and Chinese economies to grow together, and decoupling cannot be accomplished easily.
Some companies are leaving, not because of Trump, but because of rising Chinese wage rates and Chinese policies that have disadvantaged foreign-owned businesses, he said.
“If you’re in China to serve the Chinese market, you’re going to stay because you can’t serve it as well from the outside,” Reinsch said. “The president can’t simply order everybody to come home. Businesses will make rational, economic decisions.”
Earlier, Trump visited a newly built section of the border wall along the frontier with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, a dusty, barren landscape where the temperature hit 102 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Using a black Sharpie pen, he autographed a plaque commemorating the 200th mile of the wall.
A campaign pledge to build a wall along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border helped propel Trump to the White House in 2016.
The trip was Trump’s third this year to Arizona, which reported a record increase of more than 3,500 new cases of coronavirus infections on Tuesday. The state also saw record hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care units and numbers of patients on ventilators.
The president and his advisers have largely dismissed concerns about holding campaign events as coronavirus transmissions continue to climb in parts of the country.
Trump told the audience on Tuesday the virus, which originated in China, is known by many names, including “the kung flu,” a description that has drawn fire as an ethnic slur.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
