BEIJING: Top US and Chinese trade representatives discussed their Phase 1 trade deal on Friday (May 8) with China saying it agreed to improve the atmosphere for its implementation and the United States saying both sides expected obligations to be met.
The discussion in a telephone call comes amid escalating tension between the countries, exacerbated by a war of words over US criticism of China's handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
US President Donald Trump and other top officials have blamed China for the deaths of hundreds of thousands from the outbreak and have threatened punitive action, including possible tariffs and shifting supply chains away from China.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin agreed during the call that the two countries would work together to create a favourable environment for implementing the Phase 1 trade deal reached this year, China's commerce ministry said.
The US Trade Representative's office said both sides "also agreed that in spite of the current global health emergency, both countries fully expect to meet their obligations under the agreement in a timely manner".
The negotiators also agreed that "good progress" was being made on creating governmental infrastructures to make the Phase 1 trade deal a success, the US office said.
Under the deal, China agreed to increase its purchases of US goods from a 2017 baseline by US$200 billion over two years, with about US$77 billion in increased purchases in the first year and US$123 billion in the second year.
But the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year, has dealt a sharp blow to Chinese demand and its economy is only starting to recover.
The two countries will continue to hold required meetings under the trade agreement via conference call on a regular basis, the US office said.
Delhi banned all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the world's strictest COVID-19 lockdowns, leaving vast numbers of workers and students stranded.
About 15,000 nationals will be repatriated from 12 countries on planes and naval ships, in a mammoth exercise which saw the civil aviation ministry's website crash Wednesday as panicked citizens rushed to register.
Two warships have steamed to the Maldives and another to the UAE - home to a 3.3-million-strong Indian community which makes up some 30 per cent of the Gulf state's population.
The consulate in Dubai said it had received almost 200,000 applications, appealing on Twitter for "patience and cooperation" as India undertakes the "massive task" of repatriation.
The two flights which landed in Kerala state from Abu Dhabi and Dubai Thursday were carrying 354 people, including nine infants.
"I'm relieved that I'm home," a man on the flight from Abu Dhabi told AFP by telephone as he waited to disembark in Kerala state.
"People were sitting next to each other - at least the row I was sitting, we were all sitting next to each other. They are making people get out of the plane right now in shifts - first a few people left the plane and we have been asked to wait," he continued.
Indian citizens with coveted tickets, arriving at Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports, were greeted by medics in masks, gloves and plastic aprons who took blood samples for antibody tests.
"The results came out in 10 minutes. Mine has been negative. I'm super relieved," one 40-year-old passenger at Abu Dhabi airport told AFP.
Health workers take a blood test from a child carried by an Indian woman at the Dubai International Airport before leaving the Gulf Emirate on a flight back to their country, on May 7, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Karim Sahib)
"I've lost my job in the company I was working with. I'm feeling a bit weird going home -- while I'm happy that I am going home there is also a sense of uncertainty."
The oil-rich Gulf is reliant on the cheap labour of millions of foreigners, mostly from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Many live in squalid camps far from the region's showy skyscrapers and malls.
But the novel coronavirus and its devastating economic impact have left many workers sick and others unemployed, unpaid and at the mercy of sometimes unscrupulous employers.
"We have one or two flights planned every day now for the next five or six days," Consul General Vipul, who goes by one name, told AFP at Dubai airport.
Vipul said most of those aboard were workers who had lost their jobs, together with pregnant women, the elderly and some stranded tourists.
"Some people will be left out, it's inevitable in this kind of situation ... not everyone can be accommodated immediately," he said.
DELAYS AND FRUSTRATION
A naval vessel is expected to arrive at Dubai's Port Rashid. The Indian High Commission in the Maldives posted images on Twitter of one of its warships entering Male harbour ahead of Friday's planned evacuation of some 1,000 people.
Other flights will leave Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as London, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington.
A flight planned for Thursday from Qatar has been postponed until the weekend, however.
Indian media have reported delays triggered by the need to test air crew for coronavirus.
But frustrations have mounted over the slow pace of the exercise, as well as the fact that evacuees will have to pay for their passage home and spend two weeks in quarantine on arrival.
Indian nationals gather at the Dubai International Airport before leaving the Gulf Emirate on a flight back to their country, on May 7, 2020. (Photo: AFP/KARIM SAHIB)
"There are so many people who have lost their jobs here - they're literally going hungry," Yasin, a 50-year-old restaurant manager who is now out of a job, told AFP as he checked in for his flight.
"And now the government has asked for people to pay for the tickets. I sincerely want to request the government to waive that," he said.
"People do not have money to survive here, paying for flights is not possible at all."
Those who haven't managed to get a ticket home have voiced their frustrations in a torrent of posts on social media, while some turned up to try their luck.
Ajith, a 43-year-old IT engineer whose mother died two days ago, waited anxiously at Dubai airport, checking with the official who held the all-important waiting list for the first flight out.
"My mother was old and had medical issues ... there is no one in India to take care of things, so I made an emergency request to the consulate," he told AFP, before finally managing to secure a seat on the plane.
Cemetary workers dig graves for victims and suspected victims of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at the Nossa Senhora cemetary in Manaus, Amazon state, Brazil
The economic carnage unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic was brought into sharper focus on Thursday, with grim data showing major slumps in German and French industrial output and the British economy forecast to slump 14 percent this year.
Governments around the world are under immense pressure to ease the economic pain caused by measures to stop the virus, which has claimed at least 260,000 lives, left half of humanity under some form of lockdown and made millions jobless.
Some European and Asian nations are now cautiously easing restrictions hoping to stabilise their reeling economies, and US President Donald Trump is pushing for lockdown measures to be lifted.
But experts have warned that social distancing measures remain necessary until a vaccine is developed -- and governments are keen to avoid a devastating second wave of infections.
The British government was on Thursday reviewing lockdown measures, with a partial easing expected to be announced this weekend.
The easing has already begun in Germany, Europe's largest economy, while France is inching towards its own loosening of lockdowns.
Highlighting the economic imperative, the Bank of England said the GDP of Britain -- which has the second-highest number of deaths in the world -- was set to plummet 14 percent this year.
The forecast came a day after the European Union warned of a 7.7-percent eurozone contraction in 2020.
Industrial production in Germany fell by 9.2 percent month-on-month in March, official figures showed Thursday, the worst fall since the manufacturing output data series was started in 1991.
The slump in France was even greater with industrial output dropping by 16.2 percent in March on a monthly basis, statistics institute Insee reported.
Airlines and travel are among the sectors worst hit by the pandemic, with flights grounded worldwide and social distancing measures severely limiting leisure and business trips.
Adding to the list of those casualties on Thursday, British Airways parent IAG said it had plunged into a huge loss in the first quarter, and said it did not expect pre-crisis passenger demand to return until 2023.
- 'Worse than Pearl Harbor, 9/11' -
Across the Atlantic, Trump said Wednesday the coronavirus pandemic was a worse "attack" on the United States than either Pearl Harbor or 9/11, taking aim once again at China, which he said should have stopped the disease in its tracks.
The president has ramped up his rhetoric against Beijing in recent weeks, as the death toll in the US has continued to climb, and as he agitates to re-open the shuttered -- and stuttering -- economy.
"It should have never happened," Trump said of the disease that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year.
"Could have been stopped at the source. Could have been stopped in China."
"This is really the worst attack we've ever had," Trump told reporters. "This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center."
The Japanese assault on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii drew the United States into World War II.
The September 11, 2001 jihadist attacks on that killed about 3,000 people and triggered two decades of war.
China issued an indignant reply to Trump.
"We urge the US side to stop shifting the blame to China and turn to facts," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing.
So far, more than 73,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 -- more than a quarter of global deaths.
Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predicted the US toll could top 100,000 by the end of May.
The pandemic has hammered healthcare infrastructure in many parts of the United States, including New York City, and its impact has been particularly severe on the least privileged sections of American society, such as undocumented migrants.
Many of them are afraid of deportation, as well as the risk of racking up unpayable medical bills and hurting their quest to obtain legal status. As a result, many have contracted and died of COVID-19.
"He was very ill but did not want to go to the hospital," Victoria, a Mexican nanny in New York City, said of her 69-year-old husband who had kidney problems and diabetes.
"After two weeks, when he could no longer walk or breathe, my daughter took the risk, loaded him into the car and drove him there. He died three weeks later."
- Bundesliga test -
The need for social distancing has shredded by global sports calendar, but with financial pressures mounting, the biggest leagues around the world are exploring ways to resume play.
The Bundesliga, Germany's top football tier, on Wednesday became the highest-profile league to announce a resumption of matches, and could be a test case for restarts elsewhere.
Games will be played from May 15 -- but without any spectators -- after getting the green light from top authorities on the condition that strict health and hygiene guidelines are followed.
"We are particularly responsible for tens of thousands of jobs in diverse industries that live with, and through, football," said Manuel Neuer, of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. "And we are responsible for all those fans for whom football is a big part of their lives."
BEIJING: China on Thursday (May 7) accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of telling one lie to cover up another in his continued attacks against Beijing over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The remarks were made by Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who reiterated that Beijing has been transparent about the COVID-19 outbreak that emerged in China late last year and that US politicians are making baseless accusations against China.
The United States has accused Beijing of mishandling the outbreak.
Hua also said Beijing opposes US interference in its domestic affairs, in response to a question about the State Department's decision to delay a report to Congress assessing whether Hong Kong enjoys sufficient autonomy from China to continue receiving special treatment from the US
Pompeo told a news conference on Wednesday the report will be delayed "to account for any additional actions" leading up to the annual meeting of Chinese parliament in late May.
Washington and Beijing have clashed repeatedly over the virus, which emerged in China late last year but has since spiralled into a global pandemic.
Conspiracy theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan have swirled since earlier this year, but were brought into the mainstream last month by US government officials.
The World Health Organization has said US claims about the origin of the virus were "speculative".
The top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO's statement, telling National Geographic that all evidence so far "strongly indicates" a natural origin.
But countries including the United States and Australia have called for an investigation into how the disease transformed into a global pandemic.
Officially, China's toll for the virus is 4,633 - but several countries have cast doubt on whether the numbers are accurate.
China and the US had only recently soothed economic tensions, with the signing of a "phase one" trade deal in January.
But since then the world's two biggest economies have been exchanging insults and accusations.
Trump and his administration angered Beijing by repeatedly referring to "the Chinese virus" when discussing the COVID-19 outbreak.
US President Donald Trump speaks about COVID-19 in the Oval Office of the White House
Donald Trump has said the coronavirus pandemic is a worse "attack" on the United States than either Pearl Harbor or 9/11, taking aim once again at China, which he said should have stopped the disease in its tracks.
The president has ramped up his rhetoric against Beijing in recent weeks, as the death toll in the US has continued to climb, and as he agitates to re-open the shuttered -- and stuttering -- economy.
While some European and Asian nations have started easing lockdowns, experts have warned that despite the economic pain, social distancing measures remain necessary until a vaccine is developed.
Globally the virus has infected 3.7 million people and killed more than 260,000 -- a quarter of them in the US.
"It should have never happened," Trump said of the disease that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year.
"Could have been stopped at the source. Could have been stopped in China."
"This is really the worst attack we've ever had," Trump told reporters. "This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center."
The Japanese assault on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii drew the United States into World War II.
The September 11, 2001 jihadist attacks on that killed about 3,000 people and triggered two decades of war.
So far, more than 73,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predicted the US toll could top 100,000 by the end of May.
"Until we have an effective vaccine, unless something unexpected happens, our viral enemy will be with us for many months or years," Frieden told a congressional hearing.
The pandemic has hammered healthcare infrastructure in many parts of the United States, including New York City, and its impact has been particularly severe on the least privileged sections of American society, such as undocumented migrants.
Many of them are afraid of deportation, as well as the risk of racking up unpayable medical bills and hurting their quest to obtain legal status. As a result, many have contracted and died of COVID-19.
"He was very ill but did not want to go to the hospital," Victoria, a Mexican nanny in New York City, said of her 69-year-old husband who had kidney problems and diabetes.
"After two weeks, when he could no longer walk or breathe, my daughter took the risk, loaded him into the car and drove him there. He died three weeks later."
- Staggering recession -
Across the Atlantic in Europe, the worst-hit continent, new coronavirus cases and fatalities have seen a leveling off recently, and many nations have started easing the lockdowns.
Despite the good news on the medical front, the economic outlook remained grim as the European Union forecast a historic recession, with a staggering 7.7 percent contraction this year.
Governments are attempting economic revival by slowly lifting restrictions but trying to avoid a devastating second wave of infections.
Germany has unveiled plans for a return to near-normality, including sending students back to school this month and shops resuming business, but Spanish lawmakers extended a state of emergency keeping lockdown measures in place for at least two more weeks.
In Britain, the nation with the second-highest number of deaths, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said some lockdown measures could be scaled back from next week, though he warned against moving too briskly.
"It would be an economic disaster for this country if we were to pursue a relaxation of these measures now in such a way as to trigger a second spike," said Johnson, who was himself treated in hospital for the virus.
Experts in Australia, meanwhile, have warned that thousands of people are expected to take their own lives because of the financial and psychological stress of the crisis, far outstripping the death toll from the disease itself in the country.
- Bundesliga test -
The need for social distancing meant the global sports calendar was shredded by the pandemic, but with financial pressures mounting, the biggest leagues around the world are exploring ways to resume play.
The Bundesliga, Germany's top football tier, on Wednesday became the highest-profile league to announce a resumption of matches, and could be a test case for restarts elsewhere.
Games will be played from May 15 -- but without any spectators -- after getting the green light from top authorities on the condition that strict health and hygiene guidelines are followed.
"We are particularly responsible for tens of thousands of jobs in diverse industries that live with, and through, football," said Manuel Neuer, of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. "And we are responsible for all those fans for whom football is a big part of their lives."
In the United States, David Beckham's Inter Miami were one of four Major League Soccer sides returning to training, but with a raft of coronavirus measures in place.
