Hong Kong (CNN) China has welcomed an offer from the Trump administration to talk trade despite a US threat to impose steep new tariffs on a huge range of Chinese goods.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday that the two governments were discussing details for a new round of negotiations.

"The escalation of trade conflicts doesn't benefit either side's interests," Gao said at the ministry's weekly news conference.

President Donald Trump may be expecting Chinese officials to be the ones to make a concession. Later on Thursday, Trump tweeted that the United States is "under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us."

The possibility of renewed high-level talks comes as the trade war between the world's top two economies appears set to intensify. Trump said last week that new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods could go into effect "very soon" and warned that another, even bigger wave of measures is "ready to go on short notice if I want."

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