Wyden Asks Navarro to Confirm Bolton Allegations on Tie Between China Deal and Re-Election
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to answer a series of questions related to former National Security Adviser John Bolton's assertion that President Donald Trump pleaded with China's president to buy more soybeans and wheat, so Trump could win re-election. He asked him to confirm the claim, and to say whether he was in all the meetings between Trump and the Chinese president that Bolton described. He asked for the answers by July 14.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
“How were the purchase obligations in subcategories 1 through 23 of the Phase I trade agreement determined,” Wyden, D-Ore., asked in a letter sent June 30. “What relevance did the state of origin or electoral politics play in determining these purchase obligations?”
Wyden also said that Bolton said Trump offered to drop criminal charges against Huawei in exchange for a phase one deal. “Were the criminal charges against Huawei ever discussed in connection in a trade deal with China? If so, please describe,” he wrote.
“Please describe any aspects of the Phase I trade deal that were either not recorded or publicly disclosed, including, but not limited to, agreements regarding ZTE, Huawei, North Korea, Hong Kong, Uyghur detention and forced labor, private business interests, political rivals, or other topics, that influenced the scope and tenor of obligations in the Phase I trade deal.”