State of the Union: US confronted China on trade but relations are the best ever, Donald Trump says

China took advantage of the US for decades but trade war has changed that, US president says

Yet there are questions over interim trade deal’s implementation with coronavirus outbreak an urgent priority

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President Donald Trump said his predecessors had failed to stand up to China. Photo: AP

Published: 2:37pm, 5 Feb 2020Updated: 6:03pm, 14 Feb 2020

United States President Donald Trump lauded the interim US-China trade deal in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, calling it a “groundbreaking” agreement that would force China to stop its trade malpractices.

The deal would “defend our workers, protect our intellectual property, bring billions of dollars into our treasury, and open vast new markets for products made and grown right here in the USA,” Trump said in the annual message delivered by the US president to Congress.

This year’s address came on the eve of the final day of Trump’s impeachment trial – expected to end with an acquittal by his fellow Republicans in the Senate, in which they hold a majority – and as Iowa kicked off the Democrats’ presidential nomination contest.

China and the US signed the so-called phase one trade deal on January 15. In it, China agreed to increase its purchases of agricultural, manufacturing and energy products from the US in exchange for the reduction of punitive tariffs on Chinese products.

Trump said in his address that the strategy to impose tariffs to “confront China’s theft of American jobs” had worked, but that he had developed an improved relationship with China, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping.