China wary of US trade deals that shut it out

Warns of reprisals if interests threatened

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The trade truce between Washington and Beijing may be holding for now, but China is increasingly wary about what's happening elsewhere: US efforts to forge deals that could isolate Chinese firms from global supply chains.

Ahead of a July 9 deadline, US officials are deep in talks with major trading partners in Asia and Europe, pushing for new agreements that would include restrictions on Chinese content, or secure commitments to counter what Washington sees as China's unfair trade practices.

In the first such deal, President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a tiered tariff agreement with Vietnam. Exports to the US from the Southeast Asian nation will be charged a 20% rate, Trump said in a social-media post, with 40% levied on any goods deemed to be transshipped through the country.

That will hit products with components from China and possibly other nations, which are routed through Vietnam or subject to only minimal final assembly before being exported to the US. The approach mirrors provisions in an existing US trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

Although Trump shared the broad contours of the agreement, the White House has not yet released further details and some of the agreement could be in development, so it’s unknown yet how damaging this could be for China’s growing exports to Vietnam. China's Ministry of Commerce didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.

India, another nation seen as close to a deal, has also been negotiating over “rules of origin.” Washington wants at least 60% of a product's value added locally to qualify as “Made in India” and benefit from the deal, Bloomberg News previously reported. India has pushed to bring that down to around 35%, according to the report.