{"id":19193,"date":"2019-05-06T08:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/china-reneging-on-trade-commitments-u-s-officials-say\/"},"modified":"2019-05-06T08:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:32:00","slug":"china-reneging-on-trade-commitments-u-s-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/china-reneging-on-trade-commitments-u-s-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"China ‘Reneging’ On Trade Commitments, U.S. Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jim Zarroli<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Traders and financial professionals work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. U.S. stock markets fell sharply at the open but crept higher as the day wore on after President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on imports from China.<\/p>\n

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Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Updated at 10:00 p.m. ET<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a significant escalation of rhetoric, senior Trump administration officials accused Beijing of reneging on commitments it had already made in its on-going trade dispute with China, and they said they plan to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports from 10% to 25% starting on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Over the course of the last week or so, we have seen an erosion in commitments by China \u2014 I would say retreating from specific commitments that had already been made in our judgment,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at a briefing with reporters Monday afternoon. “That’s why the president referred to no re-negotiating in his tweet<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Lighthizer said China’s attempts to re-negotiate were “in our view unacceptable. These were substantial and substantive changes and really, I would use the word ‘reneging’ on prior commitments.”<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it became particularly clear over the weekend “with some new information that they were trying to go back on language that had been previously negotiated, very clear language that had the potential of changing the deal dramatically.”<\/p>\n