Coronavirus: China urged to delay purchase elements of US trade deal as outbreak rocks economy
- State-backed economists in Beijing warn coronavirus outbreak may restrict demand for purchases and urged China to request delay
- Large swathes of China on lockdown meaning trade has been hampered and logistics slowed to a snail’s pace
Beijing should request a delay in the purchase agreement element of its phase one trade deal with the United States, senior Chinese economists have said, due to the strain on its economy caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
His comments came amid mounting consensus among international trade economists that the disruption to China’s economy will be so great as to make it nigh on impossible to meet the lofty import demands.
“If possible, China should bring forward the request to postpone the implementation of purchase plan in an appropriate manner,” said Xu, who is also a senior fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, another government think tank.
Xu’s suggestion reflects growing concerns among Beijing’s policy circle that the deadly virus could derail the world’s second largest economy in the first quarter of 2020, if not the whole year.
