President Trump has long complained about the trade deficit with China, which last year saw the US buy $295bn (£221bn) more goods from China than the other way round. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US was already on track to reduce that gap by $50bn this year.

China’s top trade official said the two sides had “constructive” and “candid” discussions and agreed to keep the tariffs at current levels — the United States taxing Chinese goods at 30 percent and China collecting 10 percent on US products.

President Donald Trump isn’t going to bulldoze China on trade like he did Europe. Two days after the EU agreed to a framework trade deal with the White House that some of the bloc’s national leaders regard as a capitulation, Trump’s negotiators left talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s team in Sweden with no breakthrough.