No new US-China trade talks currently scheduled, White House says

There are no plans at present for new high-level trade talks between Washington and Beijing, a top White House official said.

However, in a briefing with reporters aboard Air Force One, White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, also said that the two sides remain in contact as regards implementation of the phase-one US-China trade deal, Reuters reported.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US President Trump had reportedly said that he was the one who had called for a planned review of progress on the phase-one trade deal to be postponed.

"I postponed talks with China. You know why? I don’t want to deal with them now," Trump said.

"What China did to the world was not even thinkable. They could have stopped (the virus)."

That review of the phase-one agreement, which had been set out in the original agreement itself, had originally been penciled-in for 15 August.

When prodded on whether he would pull out of the trade deal, Trump answered "We'll see what happens."

On 14 August, the US Department of Agriculture had notified that Beijing had purchased 126,000 tonnes of soybeans, for an eighth consecutive weekday increase with sales of crude oil having reportedly also risen.