The White House rejected a trade planning meeting with Chinese counterparts this week due to outstanding disagreements between the two sides over the enforcement of intellectual property rules.

Officials from the U.S. trade representative's office were set to meet with two Chinese vice ministers this week to try to resolve trade differences before the March 1 deadline, but the meeting was called off, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC's Kayla Tausche.

Should Beijing and Washington fail to agree on a permanent solution, President Donald Trump has said he will reinforce punitive tariffs on roughly half of all Chinese exports to the U.S.

Asked for comment, the White House told CNBC that "the teams remain in touch in preparation for high level talks with Vice Premier Liu He at the end of this month." The Treasury Department and the U.S. trade representative's office did not respond to requests for comment.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow denied that an official meeting had been canceled, telling CNBC on Tuesday that no intermediate meetings had been scheduled other than the visit by Liu next week.