President Donald Trump on Aug. 5 criticized the Chinese regime for letting the yuan fall to the key 7-per-U.S. dollar level for the first time in more than a decade, days after he vowed to slap tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese imports.
“China dropped the price of their currency to an almost [sic] a historic low. It’s called “currency manipulation.” Are you listening Federal Reserve? This is a major violation which will greatly weaken China over time!” he wrote in a tweet on Aug. 5.
Beijing on Aug. 5 let the yuan drop 1.4 percent to breach the 7-per-dollar level, triggering concerns that the trade dispute will spill over into a currency war.
Days earlier, Trump announced that he would impose 10 percent tariffs on $300 billion of currently untariffed Chinese imports beginning on Sept. 1. U.S. officials said that Trump was unsatisfied with the progress of recent trade talks, after the two sides wrapped up negotiations in Shanghai last week.
The United States currently has tariffs of 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese goods. The planned tariffs would cover virtually all remaining Chinese imports which includes smartphones, apparel, toys, and other consumer goods.
The Chinese regime on Aug. 2 vowed to retaliate if the tariffs proceed.
Trump, in another tweet on Aug. 5, criticized the regime for its unfair trade practices and currency manipulation. The president has repeatedly accused Beijing of artificially weakening its currency to offset the effects of U.S. tariffs on its exports.
“China is intent on continuing to receive the hundreds of Billions of Dollars they have been taking from the U.S. with unfair trade practices and currency manipulation. So one-sided, it should have been stopped many years ago!” he wrote.
Disputes over China’s trade practices are what caused the United States to initiate tariffs on Chinese goods last year.
They remain a sticking point in ongoing trade negotiations.
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said Aug. 4 that Beijing must address the “seven deadly sins” in order for the United States to drop tariffs on Chinese goods.
“It’s: Stop stealing our intellectual property, stop forcing technology transfers, stop hacking our computers and steal our trade secrets, stop dumping into our markets and putting our companies out of business, stop their state-owned enterprises from heavy subsidies, stop the fentanyl, stop the currency manipulation,” Navarro told Fox News.
“These are all structural changes.”
The two sides are expected to meet for further trade talks in September.
