Within days, Trump will decide whether to follow through on his campaign pledge to declare China a “currency manipulator,” a designation that could lead to new U.S. tariffs if China does not change its practices.
And while Trump has called China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation, as recently as February, three people familiar with a Treasury Department review say it did not appear likely that the department would officially designate China in its semiannual foreign currency report due Saturday. The three individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because discussions are still underway, stressed that no final decision has been made.
Trump had promised to label China a “currency manipulator” on his first day in office, but his administration has moved slowly to follow through on many of his trade-related threats. On Tuesday morning, Trump suggested he would now tie trade discussions with China to whether it works harder to contain North Korea — appearing to add a national security element to a negotiation that had previously been based only on economics.
In a tweet, he said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping in a meeting at the Mar-a-Lago resort last week that “a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!”
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