Beijing — China appealed to the US to meet it halfway to salvage a deal that could end their trade war, with its chief negotiator in Washington for two days of talks hoping to stave off US tariff increases set to be triggered on Friday.

The two sides had appeared to be converging on a deal until last weekend, when US President Donald Trump announced his intention to hike tariffs with his negotiators, saying that China was backtracking on earlier commitments.

“The US side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc ... China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed,” commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng told reporters in Beijing on Thursday. Gao said it was normal for both sides to have disagreements during the negotiating process.

Speaking to supporters at a rally in Florida on Wednesday, Trump said China had “broke[n] the deal” and vowed not to back down on imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports unless Beijing “stops cheating our workers”.

A protracted trade war between the world’s two largest economies would be damaging for global economic growth, and investors pulled their money out of stock markets this week as fears that the prospective agreement was unravelling.

Gao said the decision to send the delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He to Washington despite the tariff threat demonstrated China’s “utmost sincerity”.

“We hope the US can meet China halfway, take care of each other’s concerns, and resolve existing problems through cooperation and consultations,” Gao said.