President Trump said that Beijing was not honoring the terms of a temporary agreement and warned of further confrontation.
President Trump suggested on Friday that the trade truce between the United States and China was not holding and accused Beijing of breaking an agreement that was brokered this month to temporarily lower tariffs that the countries had imposed on each other.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said that China violated the pact and suggested that he could return to a more confrontational approach: “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
The accusations threatened to derail hopes of a broader agreement between the world’s largest economies. The trade standoff between the United States and China has created significant concern for businesses and investors and raised fears of a global downturn.
Stocks fell slightly on Friday morning in the wake of Mr. Trump’s post.
The new dispute arrives at a moment of great uncertainty for Mr. Trump and his ability to brandish steep tariffs as a way of forcing other countries to make trade concessions. A federal trade court earlier this week declared many of the president’s duties to be illegal, including some that he imposed on China on emergency grounds. An appeals court later restored that power temporarily.
The U.S. had ratcheted tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent earlier this year, and China had hit American products with a 125 percent import tax. Both sides lowered those levies in early May after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, met in Switzerland with their Chinese counterparts. They agreed to hold additional talks on a more comprehensive agreement and pause most of the tariffs for 90 days.
Despite the pause in the trade confrontation, diplomatic ties between the U.S. and China have become even more strained in recent days.