China has expressed confidence it can reach a trade deal with the United States, despite fresh warnings from President Donald Trump that he would revert to more tariffs if the two sides cannot resolve their differences.
The remarks by the Chinese Commerce Ministry follow a period of relative quiet from Beijing after Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reached a temporary truce in their trade war at a meeting over dinner in Argentina on Saturday.
In a brief statement on its website, the ministry said China would try to work quickly to implement specific issues already agreed upon, as both sides "actively promote the work of negotiations within 90 days in accordance with a clear timetable and road map".
"We are confident in implementation," it said, calling the latest bilateral talks "very successful".
Trump, via Twitter, held out the possibility of an extension of the ceasefire but warned tariffs would be back on the table if the talks failed to bear fruit.
"The negotiations with China have already started. Unless extended, they will end 90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina," Trump tweeted.
He said he would place "major tariffs" on Chinese goods imported into the United States if his administration is unable to reach an effective trade deal with Beijing.
"We are either going to have a REAL DEAL with China, or no deal at all - at which point we will be charging major tariffs against Chinese product being shipped into the United States. Ultimately, I believe, we will be making a deal - either now or into the future," Trump wrote in a post within minutes of the Commerce Ministry statement.
The threat of further escalation in the trade war between the world's two largest economies has loomed large over financial markets and the global economy for much of the year, and investors initially greeted the ceasefire with relief.
But the mood has quickly soured on scepticism that the two sides will be able to reach a substantive deal on a host of highly divisive issues within the short negotiating period agreed.
Failure would raise the spectre of a major escalation in the trade battle, with fresh US tariff action and Chinese retaliation possibly as early as March.
The White House says China had committed to start buying more American products and lifting tariff and non-tariff barriers immediately, while beginning talks on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfers and intellectual property protection.
Global financial markets tumbled on Tuesday as doubts over what could realistically be accomplished in the tight negotiating window added to concerns about fading global growth.
"Despite a temporary de-escalation of hostilities following the G-20 summit, the relationship between the U.S. and China will remain contentious," Moody's Investors Service in a report.
"Narrow agreements and modest concessions in the ongoing trade dispute will not bridge the wide gulf in their respective economic, political and strategic interests."
