China is no longer playing the game. While the trade negotiations initiated at the beginning of the year between Washington and Beijing are entered this week in what could be their last straight line before an announcement of the agreement or a failure, the United States claim that the Chinese are back. The chief negotiator american, Robert Lighthizer, told the Wall Street Journal that he had found "an erosion of commitments (made) by China" during the discussions, which were held last week in Beijing. This "erosion" would have resulted in substantial changes in the text of the agreement. "From our point of view, this is unacceptable", he said. China "tries to return on elements of language that had been clearly negotiated", and also noted the secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, quoted notably by CNN and the Wall Street Journal.

Noting this decline, Donald Trump has brandi, Sunday, the threat of new surcharges on chinese imports. He said that the goods china exported to the United States, are currently taxed at 10% for ten months (representing an annual value of $ 200 billion), will suffer an increase of customs duties to 25% on Friday. And added that imports of the chinese products are not yet taxed ($325 billion) will "soon", at 25%. With a total of 50 billion dollars of chinese assets already taxed at 25%, it is full of goods "made in China" who will oppose tariff barriers punitive to their entry into the United States. "The negotiations with China continues, but too slowly, so that they (the Chinese, editor's NOTE) try to renegotiate. No!" wrote the self-proclaimed "king of the deal" on Twitter. The threats made by the host of the White House have rocked the markets on Monday, Shanghai to New York via Paris.

Donald Trump has completed his salvo, recalling that the United States will lose $ 500 billion, "with China," and adding: "Sorry, it's not going to continue. No!" In the passage, the number of $ 500 billion is a bit exaggerated since the u.s. department of Commerce reported in march that a trade deficit with China of 419 billion dollars, up nearly 12% year on year, despite the entry into force of the customs surcharges on a small half of the year.

The United States has been losing, for many years, 600 to 800 Billion Dollars a year on Trade. With China we lose 500 Billion Dollars. Sorry, we're not going to be doing that anymore!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) may 6, 2019

This is to address this deficit that the u.s. president has triggered the hostilities trade against Beijing, there are now more than a year. The White House also wants China to stop its forced technology transfer to the detriment of american businesses, its theft of intellectual property and its massive subsidies that are as much of a distortion of competition. These latter three objectives are also shared by Europeans. The administration Trump wants strong guarantees on the implementation of the commitments of the chinese authorities. As to the latter, they refuse to sign an agreement with the gun of customs surcharges on the temple.

Despite the recent tweets on the presidency, the negotiations are not broken off because the two parties will meet Thursday and Friday in Washington, said Robert Lighthizer. Pekin has confirmed that the negotiator chinese Liu He, considered very close to president Xi Jinping, will be present. Because the challenge is of size. If Washington raises its customs duties on all imports of chinese assets, Barclays estimates that it would cost a point of growth in China in the twelve months. A price that Xi Jinping, already facing a slowdown of its economy, does not wish to pay.

France has also cautioned the two countries about the risk of escalation. "Increase customs fees, it is always a dead end and a negative decision for everyone, for the United States, for China, for the euro area, for Europe and for global growth", said the Finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, on Tuesday. "We follow very closely the current negotiations between China and the United States and we want them to respect the principles of transparency and multilateralism", he added, before'call to avoid decisions that would threaten and harm the global growth in the months ahead."

Look on FIgaro Live: United States: The head of the american diplomacy "concerned" about the chinese attitude