The approval of a long-sought agreement between the European Union and China that will open China's markets further to EU investors is a "bad deal" because Beijing will not abide by it on their end, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Thursday.
"Whenever you enter a deal with Communist China, the presumption is they are going to abide by it on their end and they never do," Navarro said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria." "This is going to be a real challenge geopolitically. From our point of view, the geopolitical complications are the bigger problems that we may face with this as Communist China tries to align with Europe."
The deal is a signal that the EU hopes to focus on the economic opportunities available in Asia, even while criticism grows over Beijing's human rights records. According to EU officials, the agreement, which has been in the works since 2013, could go into effect in early 2022.
It comes while the EU has been lambasting President Donald Trump's confrontations with China, and Navarro on Thursday said Europe is engaging in its "long tradition of appeasement" in its latest agreement.
"Let's not forget the Chinese infected the world with the pandemic," said Navarro. "Nobody seems to want to hold them accountable."
China has shown that it is under an "authoritarian, brutal regime," he added, questioning why "do we want any part of that? I don't think we do."
Navarro also discussed the growing concerns that the coronavirus vaccination process is going more slowly than had originally been outlined.
"Let's be clear about this," he said. "One of the greatest achievements President [Donald] Trump had was getting this vaccine done in record time."
Navarro noted that in a memo he wrote earlier this year, he said "clearly" there could be a vaccine by the end of November or December.
"That is about a third of the normal time," said Navarro. "If there are supply chain issues right now, we still need to be extremely grateful for the fact that we are in this position, to be able to deliver this. It is a very difficult task, particularly with ones that have to be delivered in really low-temperature conditions, but let's work together on this."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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