U.S. President Donald Trump decided to terminate the China trade deal amid growing conviction of intelligence officials that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Wuhan lab, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said.
"It’s over," Navarro told Fox News when asked about the trade agreement.
He said the "turning point" came when the United States learned about the spreading coronavirus only after a Chinese delegation had left Washington following the signing of the Phase 1 deal on Jan. 15.
"It was at a time when they had already sent hundreds of thousands of people to this country to spread that virus, and it was just minutes after wheels up when that plane took off that we began to hear about this pandemic," Navarro said.
U.S.-China relations have reached their lowest point in years since the coronavirus pandemic that began in China hit the United States hard. President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly have accused Beijing of not being transparent about the outbreak.
