The trade war between the US and China shows no sign of coming to an end anytime soon.
Officials in Beijing and Washington are at odds over planning a meeting this month to restart negotiations after the Trump administration rejected a request to hold off on imposing 15% tariffs on Chinese imports that took effect on Sunday, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
Even though President Trump has been trying to appease jittery financial markets and calm investors, the rivals have failed to agree on basic terms for relaunching talks that broke off in May because of the level of mistrust.
No date has been set for a visit by Chinese officials to Washington, although Trump said Sunday that meetings set for later this month are still a go.
China has remained defiant in the face of the escalating penalties from Team Trump and on Monday lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization, saying the new tariffs violated an agreement between the US and China during a meeting in Osaka, Japan.
Trump on Sunday followed through with his plan to slap 15% tariffs on about $112 billion of Chinese imports, including footwear, clothing and technology like Apple Watches.
Another round of 15% tariffs will target Chinese products like laptops and mobile phones on Dec. 15.
China also began putting 5% and 10% tariffs on about $75 billion worth of US products, including crude oil.
A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Geng Shuang, told reporters on Monday that “the most important thing at present is to create the necessary conditions for continuing the trade talks between China and the United States.”