MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China might cancel next round of trade talks with US, says the Wall Street Journal

The move comes after Trump ramped up pressure on China to finalize a trade deal in upcoming talks by threatening to double tariffs on US$200bn of Beijing sales

China is considering cancelling a planned Washington trip this week by the country's top trade negotiator, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Beijing was surprised by US President Donald Trump's threat to levy new tariffs on trade with the country, the Journal reported, citing a person it didn't identify. The country doesn't want to negotiate under threat, the newspaper said.

The move comes after Trump ramped up pressure on China to finalize a trade deal during upcoming talks by threatening to more than double tariffs on US$200 billion of the Asian nation's sales to the world's largest economy, and impose new import taxes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's top trade envoy, Liu He, was slated to return to Washington on Wednesday for what was expected to be a closing round of trade talks.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper said on Monday that Liu is “very unlikely” to go to the United States this week after Trump's threat. “Let Trump raise tariffs. Let’s see when trade talks can resume,” Hu said in a tweet. Global Times is a tabloid published by the Ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

In an abrupt shift from the White House after both sides had indicated negotiations were going well, Trump issued a pair of tweets on Sunday Washington time, saying he's not satisfied with the pace of progress and that the duties would increase Friday.

Trump also raised the possibility of imposing a 25% tariff on another US$325 billion in imports from China not currently covered. Such a move would be hugely disruptive for the US economy as it would hit products such as smart-phones and computers that have been left off lists so far.

Despite the happy talk from Trump and others in recent days, the US has become frustrated with China's backpedalling on some of its earlier commitments, including on the crucial matter of technology transfer. That's emboldened trade hawks within the Trump administration to push for a harder line, including the raising of tariffs.