China, US agree to 'abandon' trade war: report

China and the US agreed to “abandon” any trade war and back off from threatened tariffs, China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported on Sunday, quoting China’s Vice Premier Liu He.

“The two sides reached a consensus, will not fight a trade war and will stop increasing tariffs on each other," Lui, who led a high-level Chinese delegation to Washington, said.

In March, the US announced plans to apply import duties on nearly $50 billion in Chinese imports across 1,300 categories of products. In retaliation, China raised tariffs on $50 billion worth of US goods including soybeans, aircraft and automobiles.

Separately, the two sides agreed to take effective measures to substantially decrease the U.S. trade deficit in goods with China, they said in a joint statement.

Last year, the US had a $375.2 billion trade deficit with China, which the US reportedly had demanded the deficit to be narrowed by at least $200 billion by 2020.

China will significantly increase its purchase of US goods and service to meet the consumption needs of the Chinese people and propel the high-quality economic development of China, which also helps support the US economic development and employment.

The two nations agreed to "meaningfully increase the export of US agriculture and energy products". The US side will send a delegation to China for further consultations.