Navarro walks back China trade deal comments

[NFA] Just hours after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the trade deal with China was 'over,' he walked back his comments -- which had in the meantime sent financial markets into a frenzy.

Gloria Tso reports.

Just hours after the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the trade deal with China was 'over,' he walked back his comments -- which had in the meantime sent financial markets into a frenzy.

Earlier Monday (June 22) Navarro said the deal was over when asked about it on Fox News, and that the quote 'turning point' came when the U.S. learned about the coronavirus only after a Chinese delegation left Washington once the Phase 1 trade deal was signed in January.

After that, U.S. stock futures went into wild swings, but mostly recovered after Navarro said his Fox comments quote 'have been taken wildly out of context.'

Navarro added that quote "They had nothing at all to do with the Phase 1 trade deal, which continues in place.

I was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon the world." Amid the market confusion, President Donald Trump quickly tweeted that the China deal remains quote "fully intact" and that quote "hopefully, they will continue to live up to the terms of the agreement." Navarro is one of the most outspoken critics of China among Trump's senior advisers.

Relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point in years ever since the global health crisis which first emerged in China hit the U.S. particularly hard.

On Thursday Trump renewed his threat to cut ties with China, just a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with a Chinese delegation in Hawaii and a U.S. trade representative said he did not consider decoupling the two economies to be a viable option.