China has failed to fulfill its obligations as agreed in the Phase One trade deal with U.S. Chinese analysts said that the setback was caused by the corona pandemic as it had stuck China hardest. They said another reason was difficulties faced by the Chinese community in dealing with U.S due to strict trump policies.
China had agreed to purchase $172 billion worth of goods and products from U.S within a year. However, China only succeeded in purchasing 58.1% of the total agreed purchase in the Phase One trade deal. The figures are provided by Bloomberg through data collected from customs agency. China had bought only 60.3% of the agreed manufactured products and bought agricultural goods of around 64.5% of the total agreed. China failed to make energy-related imports above approximately 40%.
As it was reflected through reports every month, China was lagging behind its targets. Hence China failing to achieve its annual target was pretty much predictable. However, China picked up the pace in December but the effort was not enough to reach the annual agreed target. China’s major imports in December were liquefied natural gas and automobiles.
China also agreed to buy $200 billion worth of additional goods and services as compared to the mark of 2017. In the agreement, it was that China would be spending in these services before the end of 2021. As half time of the agreement has passed, there are hopes that Biden’s administration would renegotiate the terms of the pact.
Last month Joe Biden talked to New York Times about the tariffs on Chinese goods. He said that changing the tariffs of $360 billion worth of Chinese goods was not the top priority of his administration. Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in favor of continuing Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products. She gave her word that the government would work hard to tackle “abusive” trades.
Market analysts say that the trade deal wasn’t beneficial for the U.S economy as promised by Trump. Analysts agree that instead the benefitting the trade deal increased the trade deficit to over $317 billion with China. As unexpectedly imports from China increased with growing needs of medical supplies and devices for work from home.