Donald Trump says Hong Kong law he just signed could complicate any trade deal with China
- ‘It doesn’t make it better,’ he acknowledges when asked if the Hong Kong democracy law would make a prospective agreement with Beijing harder
- President avoids saying whether a phase-one deal would happen before year’s end, while new round of tariffs on December 15 loom
US President Donald Trump said Monday that a new law authorising the US to sanction Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Hong Kong could complicate his administration’s efforts to secure a trade deal with Beijing.
“It doesn’t make it better,” Trump acknowledged when asked if the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act – which he signed into law last week just before Thanksgiving – would make a deal with China harder to achieve.
In addition to punitive action against officials found to be responsible for undercutting freedoms guaranteed in the Basic Law – Hong Kong's mini-constitution — the law also requires the US Secretary of State to make an annual certification that the city enjoys sufficient autonomy from the mainland to warrant maintaining the special trade status it enjoys in Washington.
Trump had previously lobbied his Republican allies in the Senate to slow-walk the bill, and claimed last week that some of its provisions would “interfere” with his ability to “state the foreign policy of the United States”. But bipartisan support for the act was considered so strong in both houses of Congress that a presidential veto would have been overridden.
Last week Trump also signed into law the Protect Hong Kong Act, which prohibits US companies from exporting non-lethal crowd-control munitions, including tear gas and rubber bullets, to city authorities amid allegations of disproportionate force by the city’s police.