The President of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened this Sunday to end the «phase 1» trade agreement with China, if the latter country does not import more than 200,000 million dollars of American goods and services in the next two years, according to the agreement itself.

On January 15, President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a Phase 1 trade agreement. It is part of an effort to resolve trade tensions that have been ongoing since March 2018, when the Office of the Trade Representative The United States (USTR) published its Section 301 investigation into China’s trade distortion practices.

The deal includes commitments from China to buy an additional $ 200 billion in U.S. products from 2017 levels in four sectors (manufactured goods, services, agricultural products, and energy) over the next two years.

«If they don’t buy, we’ll end the deal. Very simple, «Trump told Fox News.

Trade agreement and vaccine

On the other hand, Trump assured that the United States will have a vaccine against Covid-19 by the end of the year.

«I think we will have the vaccine by the end of the year,» he said. «We are trying very hard (…) If you look at what Johnson & Johnson is doing,» he continued, «and many companies, I think they are very close,» he added.

American public health authorities have said that developing a vaccine will likely take between one year and 18 months. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in late April that it is conceivable, if a vaccine is developed soon, that it could be widely distributed even in January.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the media that there is «enormous evidence» that Covid-19 started in a laboratory in Wuhan.