White House hints ‘tariff’ as the punishment for China for mishandling the coronavirus

On Friday, the White House said that China has mishandled the situation after the coronavirus outbreak in its Wuhan city and has avoided giving a firm statement.
The virus was first reported in Wuhan and has so far killed more than 2,35,000 people across the world.
Not only the United States but many other countries, including Germany, Britain and Australian, are blaming China for the spread.

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On Thursday, the US President had hinted at using tariff as a tool to punish china for mishandling the virus outbreak and the very next day the markets went down.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was questioned, “The markets are down substantially today after the President yesterday suggested in the East Room that he might use tariffs to punish China over the coronavirus. Is there any serious consideration being given to putting new tariffs on China or was the President just spitballing yesterday?”

She said, “I won’t get before any announcements from the President, but I will be able to echo the President’s displeasure with China. It’s no secret that China mishandled this situation. Just a couple of examples for you; they didn’t share the genetic sequence until a professor in Shanghai did so on his own. The very next day China pack up his lab for quote rectification. They slow-walked information on a human to human transmission alongside the planet Health Organization and didn’t allow us to investigators in at a really important time.

So, we take displeasure with China’s actions, but I certainly won’t get out of the president with those announcements. Again, when it involves retaliatory measures, I will be able to not get before the president thereon. I mean, look at this timeline and it’s really damning for the WHO when you just consider the fact that on December 31, you had Taiwanese officials warning about human to human transmission and the WHO did not make that public. On January 9 the WHO repeated China’s claim that the virus ‘does not transmit readily between people’. That was quite apparently false. On January 14, the WHO again repeated China’s talking points about no human to human transmission.

They praised China’s leadership on 22 January. On the 23rd, they said, and this is often incredible, the pandemic didn’t represent a public health emergency of international concern. And even on February 29, you had the WHO saying that when the coronavirus was spreading around the world, they chose to put, excuse me, political correctness first by opposing lifesaving travel restrictions. The travel restrictions this president put in situ, the travel restrictions that Dr Fauci praised as saving lives and you’ve got the planet Health Organization opposing a measure that saved American lives. That’s unacceptable, especially at a time when the US was providing USD 400 to 500 million.”

She also said that the US has very limited data from China and that China stopped US investigators.
She also mentioned that US provides about USD 400 million to USD 500 million each year to the WHO as compared to China who roughly contributes USD 40 million each year, but yet “WHO appears to possess a really clear China bias”.

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