President Trump said Wednesday that China is confirming his announcement of a pause in its trade war with the U.S.
“Very strong signals being sent by China once they returned home from their long trip, including stops, from Argentina,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. ALL subjects discussed!”
Mr. Trump said he agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the outline for a trade agreement during dinner Saturday night at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. But Chinese officials had been mum about any agreement until Wednesday, when the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said China was working to implement the verbal agreement.
On Tuesday, U.S. stock markets plummeted by about 3 percent, largely due to investors’ uncertainty about the tariff war with Beijing.
The stock markets are closed Wednesday in honor of a memorial service for the late President George H.W. Bush.
Mr. Trump also pointed to a report by Bloomberg that Chinese officials “have begun preparing to restart imports of U.S. Soybeans & Liquified Natural Gas,” citing the actions as the first confirmation of Mr. Trump’s announcement.
The president also said one of the most “exciting” developments from his meeting with Mr. Xi was “his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly Fentanyl coming into the United States.”
“It will now be considered a ’controlled substance,’ ” Mr. Trump said. “This could be a game changer on what is considered to be the worst and most dangerous, addictive and deadly substance of them all.”
He said in 2017, “over 77,000 people died from Fentanyl.”
“If China cracks down on this ’horror drug,’ using the Death Penalty for distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!” Mr. Trump said.
The U.S. government does not track death rates for every drug. The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s website says there were more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017, including nearly 30,000 deaths related to fentanyl.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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