Senator Demands Answers From Navarro on Bolton China Allegations
(Bloomberg) -- A Democratic senator is demanding answers from President Donald Trump's top China trade adviser on allegations that Trump sought Beijing's help in boosting his re-election chances.
In a June 30 letter sent to trade adviser Peter Navarro, Senator Ron Wyden -- an Oregon Democrat who sits on the Finance Committee with jurisdiction over trade -- said the claims made by former national security adviser John Bolton “are troubling, particularly because they fit a pattern of President Trump using his office for his own political gain.”
In a book officially released last week, Bolton wrote that Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a dinner in 2018 to prioritize purchases of American agricultural products in order to boost his chances to get re-elected in November. The president and his Cabinet members have denied those allegations.
Wyden asked whether he recalled Trump expressing to a foreign official the importance of Chinese purchases of soybeans, wheat, or other agricultural products to his electoral interests and to provide details on interactions between the president and Xi at two international summits.
“Even before Bolton's allegations surfaced, there was disturbing evidence that trade negotiations with China were being used for advance Trump's personal interests,” the senator wrote. “I was critical of the initial China trade deal, because it appeared to prioritize the sale of soybeans from the electorally important states in the Midwest over more foundational issues like addressing intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, and economic espionage.”
Read more: Bolton Book to Relate Trump Chaos, How Re-Election Drove Policy
Because the phase one trade deal's chapter on agricultural-purchase targets is classified, there is little transparency over the exact products and figures the two countries agreed on in the negotiations.
Wyden asked Navarro to describe how each subcategory of purchase obligations was determined and whether electoral politics factored into it. He said the answers were necessary “to assure the public that the agreement did not prioritize agricultural products from electorally important states for the benefit of President Trump.”
The letter states that he expects a response no later than July 14. An aide to Senator Wyden said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will have to submit answers on the allegations as well in questions for the record the committee will send to him.
Lighthizer told lawmakers during a hearing this month that the claims were “totally untrue” and that he would have recalled the incident if it had happened in a meeting that he attended.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
