(Express Daily ) Donald Trump has ordered the US Treasury to withdraw fresh sanctions on Chinese companies accused of helping North Korea evade separate UN sanctions, in an extraordinary rebuke of his own national security team. The Treasury had announced on Thursday that it was imposing sanctions on two Chinese shipping companies that allegedly helped North Korea conduct ship-to-ship transfers of coal in contravention of UN sanctions. But Mr Trump on Friday tweeted that the sanctions were not necessary, and told Treasury to rescind the measures. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” the president tweeted after landing in West Palm Beach, as he prepared to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The move stunned former officials because of the suggestion that the policy co-ordinating process in the government had broken down even further than many critics had assumed. Asked about the move, Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, said: “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/039d9a9a-4cd4-11e9-8b7f-d49067e0f50d

The reversal of the sanctions comes less than a month after Mr Trump failed to reach a denuclearisation deal with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, at their second summit, which was held in Vietnam. US officials have tried to put a more positive spin on the outcome in Hanoi, saying Mr Trump walked away from a bad deal. The order to rescind the sanctions imposed on Thursday — not on Friday, as Mr Trump said — marked a major rebuke of Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary who has worked with Mr Trump since joining his 2016 campaign. So far, he has largely avoided the public attacks that Mr Trump has aimed at several other cabinet secretaries. “Targeted sanctions of this nature go through a rigorous inter-agency process before being announced. A presidential reversal of this kind undermines not only the credibility of the secretary of the Treasury but of the whole national security decision-making system,” said Dennis Wilder, who was the top Asia adviser to George W Bush. “It will leave nations wondering if the US national security apparatus is now dysfunctional and in disarray.” The move by Mr Trump came at the end of a week in which he has come under heavy criticism for launching a serious of attacks on John McCain, the former Arizona senator and Vietnam war hero who died last year. Some critics have speculated that Mr Trump is becoming increasingly anxious as he prepares for the conclusion of the investigation by Robert Mueller into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia. Speculation has mounted in Washington that Mr Mueller is wrapping up his two-year investigation and preparing to provide his report to William Barr, the new attorney-general who was recently appointed by the president. It was unclear on Friday whether Mr Trump had ordered the reversal of the sanctions because he was worried that the new measures make it harder to reach a denuclearisation deal with Mr Kim, or whether he worried that putting sanctions on the Chinese companies would jeopardise efforts to reach a deal with Beijing to end the trade war between the two countries. Mr Mnuchin and Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, are heading to Beijing next week for the latest round of talks aimed at staving off an escalation in the dispute, which could see the US raise tariffs further.

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/039d9a9a-4cd4-11e9-8b7f-d49067e0f50d

The White House and National Security Council struggled to explain the situation — as has happened in many cases when Mr Trump tweets something on Twitter that catches his officials and press teams by surprise. The National Security Council pointed to the statement from Ms Sanders, while the Treasury and state department did not immediately respond to calls and emails requesting clarification about how the decision had been made. Mr Trump prompted the resignation of Jim Mattis, defence secretary, in December by tweeting that he would withdraw US troops from Syria — a decision that was not taken in consultation with his generals and security officials. The North Korea tweet on Friday also had echoes of his criticism of Rex Tillerson in October 2017 when the then-secretary of state was undermined while he was discussing North Korea policy with Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing. “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Mr Trump tweeted at the time, in one of many criticisms of Mr Tillerson that prompted Bob Corker, then Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to quip that Mr Trump had “castrated” his top diplomat. John Delaney, one of the 15 Democrats running for president, said that while he had applauded Mr Trump for engaging in talks with Mr Kim, this latest move underscored “his erratic and unstable behaviour”. “Nuclear weapons remain the most significant short-term risk to the world and the American people deserve a steady and disciplined hand negotiating the denuclearisation of North Korea. President Trump is not that person.”