China has offered to buy $70 billion in US goods if Washington will drop plans to impose tariffs in return, an official in President Donald Trump's administration told AFP on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report.

Top Chinese economic advisor Liu He made the offer during weekend trade talks in Beijing with a US delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The new purchases would include soybeans, natural gas, crude oil and coal.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday told AFP no definitive agreement had been reached and no further information was available.

US goods exports to China last year were $130.4 billion, according to the Department. A $70 billion package of purchases would amount to a 53.8 percent increase.

For goods alone, the US trade deficit with China hit a record $375 billion last year, and the White House has demanded that China cut the imbalance by $200 billion.

"If the United States introduces trade sanctions including tariffs, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will be void," China's official news agency Xinhua said Sunday.

According to The Journal, Liu personally explained to Ross the offer would be void in the event Washington imposed additional tariffs.

Trump had announced last week that the US was pressing ahead with plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports tied to tech industries which Washington says have benefitted from the alleged theft of US know-how and intellectual property.

Washington's trade battles with China, Europe, Mexico and others are an effort to make those countries buy more US goods and force down the US trade deficit, which Trump sees as a job killer and threat to the American industrial base.

Record US exports shrink April trade gap as China imports fall
Washington (AFP) June 6, 2018 - Record exports sent the US trade deficit to its lowest level in seven months in April while Americans imported fewer goods from China, government data showed Wednesday.

The falling trade gap comes as the major world economies gird for all-out trade war after President Donald Trump last week imposed punishing tariffs on US imports of steel and aluminum.

His trade battles with China, Europe, Mexico and others are an effort to make those countries buy more US goods and force down the deficit, which Trump sees as a job killer and threat to the American industrial base.

So he might see the latest data as vindication his policies are working even though the figures can vary month to month.

Markets and major corporations, however, see the trade conflict as a threat to expanding cross-border trade and GDP growth.

The all-time high amount of US exports in April was driven upwards by growing orders for American corn and soybeans, a product that China has threatened with retaliatory tariffs, as well as fuel oil and other petroleum products.

The total US trade deficit fell 2.1 percent for the month to $46.2 billion after a downward revision for March. The result was better than analysts expected, since a consensus forecast called for a 3.4 percent increase.

Despite the April dip, the trade deficit is still on track to reach a 10-year high in 2018.

Exports of goods and services rose 0.3 percent to $211.2 billion, the highest on record. Exports of goods ($141.2 billion) and services ($70 billion) each were at all-time highs.

Meanwhile, imports fell 0.2 percent to $257.4 billion.

The deficit with China in goods only, the principal driver of the overall US trade gap, fell 9.8 percent for the month as US imports from the industrial giant fell $4.7 billion to $41.9 billion.

- Battle in the G7 -

Year-to-date, however, the US trade gap with China was still up 10.4 percent, matching a the general trend of the last nine years

Deficits also narrowed with Canada and Mexico in the latest month.

The drop in the total trade gap suggested trade could be less of a drag than expected on GDP growth in the second quarter.

But despite the declines in March and April, the deficit for the first four months of 2018 was still nearly 12 percent higher than the same period last year.

Americans imported fewer mobile telephones and consumer goods as well as passenger cars.

Trump's multi-front trade confrontation was due to spill over into this week's Group of Seven summit in Quebec, Canada.

Other members of the G7 leading industrialized nations have unanimously denounced Trump's protectionist trade policies and vowed to retaliate against the tariffs.

The European Union on Wednesday said a package of counter-measures on US goods would be ready by July.

RDQ Economics said the trade gap is likely to continue rising as US consumers run out of American-made goods to buy.

"We firmly believe that the growth in aggregate demand in the US is outstripping supply and expect the trade gap to widen later in the year but for now we appear on track for trade to add to second-quarter growth, which would push real GDP growth in the quarter above four percent," the said in a research note.

"We fail to understand the strategy of risking a trade war with Europe, Canada and Mexico particularly at a time when the US appears to be expanding strongly in these markets."

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China 'regrets' EU challenge at WTO
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China voiced regret over the European Union's decision to lodge an intellectual property rights complaint at the World Trade Organization, just as Beijing is embroiled in a similar dispute with Washington. The EU brought the challenge to the WTO on Friday, accusing Beijing of unfairly requiring foreign firms to hand over their technology to Chinese companies in order to do business in China. "China expresses regret over the EU launching the complaint and will properly handle it according to the ... read more