President Donald Trump sent stock futures diving early Friday after he accused China of breaking a handshake pact the two countries made in Geneva earlier this month that had helped ratchet down a trade standoff.
In a post on Truth Social just after 8 a.m. ET, Trump wrote China “HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US” and signaled a tough response lay ahead.
“So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!” the president said.
All three major stock indexes opened Friday morning trading about 0.4% lower and remained in negative territory by late morning.
The “trade win” that the White House announced May 12 was expected to lead to China removing retaliatory tariffs and a suspension of “nontariff countermeasures taken against the United States.” Both sides agreed to lower tariffs on each other by 115% for 90 days.
In a statement, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson said that while both sides have continued to engage in discussions since the Geneva talks, “Recently, China has repeatedly raised concerns with the U.S. regarding its abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector and other related practices.”
Multiple media reports this week indicated the Trump administration has ordered U.S. companies to stop shipping high-level goods like chip design software and chemicals to China.
Reuters reported Thursday that the new restrictions were likely to escalate tensions with Beijing and “appear aimed at choke points to prevent China from getting products necessary for key sectors.”
“China once again urges the US to immediately correct its erroneous actions, cease discriminatory restrictions against China and jointly uphold the consensus reached at the high-level talks in Geneva,” said the Chinese Embassy spokesperson, Liu Pengyu.
Credit: CNBC