Trump dig at China disturbs markets

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s new threat of tariffs against China over the coronavirus sent a shudder through global markets on Friday, as India warned the world’s biggest lockdown would continue for two more weeks.

European countries and some parts of the United States have begun to ease the social and economic restrictions that have shut in half the world, joining those Asian that feel they have already turned a corner.

But giant India, where stringent restrictions on 1.3 billion people have been credited with keeping virus cases low at the cost of hardship for millions, said it would renew the lockdown in many regions for two more weeks.

The home ministry said there would be “considerable relaxations” in some areas but that at-risk zones will have intensified contact tracing, house-to-house surveillance and no movement in or out except for medical emergencies and the supply of essential goods and services.

In New York, Wall Street opened sharply down after Trump alleged on Thursday that the virus might have come from a Chinese lab and raised the prospect of more US trade tariffs.

The markets have also been following the global economic impact of the epidemic, and tech giants Apple and Amazon became the latest firms to announce worrying results as corporations around the world shed staff and slash profit forecasts.

Trump’s unproven claim—which followed stern Chinese denials—appeared at odds with statements by his intelligence chief and top diplomat Mike Pompeo, who said: “We don’t know precisely where it began.”

His taunt will nevertheless stir tensions even as the World Health Organisation (WHO) asked to be allowed to take part in a Chinese investigation into the “animal origins” of the pandemic.

In more positive signs, South Africa and Austria were allowing some businesses to reopen from Friday, and hard-hit Spain’s latest daily death toll confirmed that the pandemic there was slowing.

Nevertheless, Spain’s Finance Minister Nadia Calvino said its economy was projected to shrink by 9.2 percent in 2020 — after growing by two percent last year.

While death rates are slowing in most of Europe, the global toll from the pandemic has now topped 233,000, according to an AFP tally of official sources.

More than 3.2 million infections have been recorded globally, likely a gross underestimation with many countries only testing the most serious cases.

Asked if he had seen anything to make him think the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak, Trump replied: “Yes, I have.” But he refused to give details and Secretary of State Pompeo indicated he had not seen definitive evidence.

“We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don’t know if it emanated from the wet market or yet some other place. We don’t know those answers,” he said.

In Geneva, a WHO spokesman said several investigations into the source of the virus were going on, adding that the global agency was “not currently involved in the studies in China”.

“WHO would be keen to work with international partners and, at the invitation of the Chinese government, to participate in investigation around the animal origins,” Tarik Jasarevic told AFP.

Beijing has denied the lab was the source of the virus.

When asked on Thursday about reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could “do it differently” by “just putting on tariffs”. The pandemic has roiled economies worldwide and kept billions of people indoors, but now that numbers are steadying countries are starting to chart a course out of restrictive lockdowns.

Germany has accelerated plans to lift its lockdown, preparing to ease curbs on public life and reopen churches, museums and zoos—having restarted shopping last week.

Neighbouring Austria followed suit Friday with people allowed to go out again freely and gather as long as the group does not exceed 10 people—or 30 for funerals.

And in Belgium, doctors and recovering patients said that many of those who had survived the virus and emerged from a coma were still too weak to leave hospital.

In northern Nigeria’s Kano state, cases have almost tripled in a few days. Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, head of a presidential COVID-19 taskforce, told AFP the region appeared to be “at the threshold of the community transmission stage”.