Trump Touts Potentially 'epic' China Trade Deal

President Donald Trump says the US and China are a month from agreeing to what he said could be "the granddaddy" of trade deals.

But, nine months into the two countries' trade war, the announcement was anti-climactic, as the White House had earlier stoked anticipation that Trump could announce a date for a summit to clinch a final deal with President Xi Jinping.

Global markets had also rallied in recent days, roused by the hope that an end to the trade spat between the world's two top economies was at last at hand.

"We will probably know over the next four weeks. It may take two weeks after that," Trump said following a meeting with Beijing's trade envoy Liu He. "It's looking very good."

Despite Trump's rosy gloss on the talks on Thursday, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters that major issues were left to be resolved.

Both US and Chinese officials have projected cautious optimism for months, but the last mile is proving to be the hardest, with the two sides reportedly tussling over whether and when Washington should remove the punishing tariffs it imposed last year on Chinese goods.

China has floated offers to make sizable purchases of US commodities and taken steps to show it will protect foreign intellectual property.

But Democrats have warned of the temptation to accept a superficial deal that does not extract profound changes to the Chinese industrial policies American officials have long denounced. (AFP)