Trump asserts COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, hints at imposing tariff on China
The novel coronavirus, that has killed over 230,000 people globally so far and has shattered economies, emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China, US President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday (April 30) with a high degree of confidence.
“Yes, I have. Yes, I have,” Trump told reporters at the East Room of the White House when asked if he has seen anything at this point that gives him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is where the virus originated.
The US president also hinted at imposing tariff on China, but ruled out considering cancelling US debt obligations to the country as a punishment for the coronavirus.
He, however, refused to provide any details, except for saying that investigations are underway and it would be out soon.
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Asked what gave him a high degree of confidence that the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said, “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
The president, however, did not hold his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping responsible for this. “I don’t want to say that, I don’t want to say that, but certainly it could have been stopped. It came out of China and it could have been stopped and I wish they had stopped it and so does the whole world wish they had stopped it.”
Reiterating that this is something that could have been contained at Wuhan ground zero, he said that China could have contained it. “They were either unable to, or they chose not to. And the world has suffered greatly.”
One of two things happened, he reasoned. “They either didn’t do it and you know they couldn’t do it from a competent standpoint or they let it spread and I would say probably it got out of control.”
“But there’s another case that how come they stopped all of the planes and all of the traffic from going into China, but they didn’t stop the planes and the traffic from coming into the United States and from coming into all over Europe,” he said, citing the example of Italy, the hardest-hit European country.
“This country (the US) is very lucky and I’m very lucky that I put the ban on China, as you know, very early on. In January, we put the ban on China and that was a very early day. That wasn’t a late day, that was an early day. Then, we later put the ban on in Europe,” he said.
Before holding China accountable, Trump said he wants to find out what happened. “I think well be able to get a very good — a very powerful definition of exactly what happened. We’re working on it strongly now and I think it’s going to be very powerful,” he said.
“But they could have stopped it. They are a very brilliant nation, scientifically and otherwise. It got loose, let’s say, and they could have capped it. They could have stopped it, but they didn’t. And they stopped the planes from going to China, but they didn’t stop them from going to the rest of the world. What was that all about?” he asked.
“We should have the answer to that in the not-too-distant future and that will determine a lot how I feel about China,” Trump said.
US may impose tariffs on China
As regards to the imposition of tariffs on China, Trump said debt cancellation is a “rough game” and may harm the sanctity of the US currency.
“We can do it with tariffs. We can do it other ways even beyond that without having to play that game (cancel US debt obligations). That’s a rough game,” he told reporters when asked if he would consider having the US not pay its debt obligations to China as a punishment for the virus.
Several countries including the US and its allies like Germany, Britain and Australia are holding China responsible for the spread of coronavirus. There have been multiple voices in these countries on ways to seek compensation for the losses inflicted by the pandemic.
“Well, I can do it differently. I can do the same thing but even for more money just by putting on tariffs. So I don’t have to do that. You know, it’s approximately USD1 trillion, a little bit more as I understand it, $1 trillion. But we can do that in probably a little bit of a more forthright manner,” Trump said.
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“You start playing those games (debt cancellation), and that’s tough. You know, we have the dollar to protect. We want to protect the sanctity of the dollar, the importance of the dollar. It’s the greatest currency in the history of the world. It’s become stronger. We have a very strong dollar. That’s why we’re borrowing at zero, zero interest rate,” he said.
“You know, you say oh gee, we owe you a certain amount of money; were going to keep it. But when you start playing that game, you’re really hurting the sanctity, the importance of the greatest currency on the earth. But we can do it in other ways. We can do it with tariffs. We can do it other ways even beyond that without having to play that game. That’s a rough game,” Trump said.
