Peter Navarro insists China not trusted, but trade deal intact

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday the trade deal with China "continues in place,'' adding that his earlier comments that the pact was "over" were taken out of context, Reuters reports.
U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed in a tweet that the deal was "fully intact.''
"Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the agreement," Trump said on Twitter.
Earlier, Navarro told Fox News 'it's over' in an interview 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 January 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.
Financial markets reacted to the comments, with U.S. stock futures turning negative and risk-sensitive currencies including the Australian dollar falling.
They have since recovered much of the lost ground after Navarro issued a statement saying his comments "have been taken wildly out of context."
"They had nothing at all to do with the Phase I trade deal, which continues in place. I was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon
the world,'' he said.