WASHINGTON — Trade talks between the United States and China resumed on Monday with prospects dimming for a transformative deal, as both sides appeared more focused on preventing tensions from escalating before the 2020 presidential election than on making concessions.

Negotiators from both countries are continuing to press for an agreement, but months of meetings have so failed to yield consensus on the most difficult issues and there is little to suggest that a compromise is within reach. Instead, the United States and China appear to be trying to find a path to keep the talks moving forward and to avoid a breakdown that could rattle stock markets and hurt President Trump’s chances of re-election.

Mr. Trump and his advisers are playing down the likelihood of reaching an agreement in the short term, and the president suggested on Friday that China was trying to drag out the negotiations in the hope that someone else might occupy the Oval Office come January 2021.

“Meeting after meeting,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think that China will probably say: ‘Let’s wait. It’s 14, 15 months till the election. Let’s see if one of these people that give the United States away, let’s see if one of them could possibly get elected.’”