The outlook for US-China relations appeared to hit another snag on Sunday when the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that China had rebuffed an attempt to communicate, even as US President Donald Trump appeared to downplay the ongoing trade differences.
Greer, who served in the US trade agency during Trump’s first term, said Beijing’s move to tighten controls on strategic rare earth minerals and magnets was not telegraphed, came as a surprise and was a “power grab”.
“I can tell you that we were not notified, and quickly, as soon as we found out from public sources, we reached out to the Chinese to have a phone call,” Greer told Fox network’s “Sunday Briefing” programme, “and they deferred.”
China’s latest step to expand export controls over rare earth materials, used in a host of hi-tech products from consumer goods to fighter jets, has sent shock waves through US and European policy circles.
It also helped trigger a US$2 trillion stock market sell-off – the biggest drop in months – on Friday after Trump’s threat to more than double Chinese tariffs.
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