Donald Trump’s top economic adviser sought to contain the fallout from the escalation of trade tensions with Beijing, saying there was a “strong possibility” the US president would meet with Xi Jinping, China’s president, to rescue a deal at the G20 summit in Japan next month.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, raised the prospect of a face-to-face encounter between Mr Trump and Mr Xi as the US moved to impose sharply higher tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese imports, dramatically raising the stakes in the trade dispute between the countries.
On Monday, the US administration is expected to release details of a further $300bn of Chinese imports that it wants to hit with 25 per cent tariffs if there is no progress in the negotiations with Beijing, after already moving to raise levies on an earlier list of $200bn of Chinese goods from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on Friday.