China's Top Trade Negotiator Gets Trump Meeting

China's top trade negotiator is due to meet US President Donald Trump on Friday, as talks continue to try to defuse the escalation of the tariff war between the world's economic superpowers.

The fourth round of talks have been under way all week, with senior officials meeting on Thursday and Friday as Trump's threat to more than double tariffs on US$200 billion in Chinese goods on March 1 looms over the discussions.

The White House said Trump would meet Vice-Premier Liu He, who is leading the delegation from Beijing.

President Xi Jinping also met US negotiators last week in Beijing, a sign the two leaders are closely following the high-stakes talks.

Trump has signaled he could extend the March 1 deadline and said any final agreement likely would be sealed at a meeting with Xi.

Washington has demanded deep structural changes from Beijing to halt the theft of American technology, as well as the massive subsidies and the advantages granted to state-owned enterprises.

But analysts have said that will be tough for Chinese leaders to go along with and they are more likely to offer instead to buy huge amounts of US goods to reduce the trade surplus, a politically sensitive issue for Trump who views the trade imbalance as stealing from the United States. (AFP)