The United States is putting “a knife to China’s neck” on trade issues, a senior Chinese official has said, as the two sides struggle to find a way to end a months-long standoff over trade.

A day after both sides heaped fresh tariffs on each other’s goods, vice-commerce minister Wang Shouwen said the resumption of talks on the matter depended on the “will” of the US.

US tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods and retaliatory taxes by Beijing on $60bn worth of US products kicked in on Monday as the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies escalated, unnerving global financial markets.

China also accused the United States of engaging in “trade bullyism”, and said Washington was intimidating other countries to submit to its will, according to a white paper on the dispute published by China’s state council, or cabinet, on Monday.

Asian shares were broadly down on Tuesday amid nervousness on markets about the ongoing dispute. Although the Nikkei in Tokyo was up slightly, the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.5% and shares in Sydney were down 0.3%.

Analysts at Mizuho Bank in Tokyo said the criticism from Beijing suggested that China might wait until Donald Trump leaves the White House rather than embarking on negotiations.

“Given these developments, it is increasingly likely that both sides will not resume negotiations for some time, at least until there is a noticeable shift in the political mood on either side,” the analysts said.

Several rounds of talks in recent months have failed to produce a significant breakthrough and fresh negotiations which had been expected in coming weeks have been cancelled after Beijing reportedly decided late last week not to send a delegation to Washington.

Wang said that not all trade discussions had been useless, but accused the US of abandoning its mutual understanding with China.

China did not know why the US had changed its mind after reaching an agreement with China on trade, Wang said, apparently referring to talks in May when it appeared briefly that a framework was being sorted out.

US exporters would “certainly” be hurt, Wang said, echoing an editorial in the state-backed Global Times on Tuesday which said: “China is a big and powerful nation, so whether it is a confrontation with China economically or militarily, it would come at a huge price.”