The talks between China and the US are set to take place just two days after the UK became the first country to strike a tariffs deal with the Trump administration. The US has agreed to reduce import taxes on a set number of British cars and allow some steel and aluminium into the country tariff-free, as part of a new agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he expects there to be substantive negotiations between the United States and China on trade this weekend and predicted that punitive U.S. tariffs on Beijing of 145% would likely come down.

China’s exports growth showed resilience in April, defying expectations that the effects of a trade war with the US would start to bite. Exports grew 8.1 per cent in dollar terms compared with a year earlier, according to statistics from China’s customs administration released on Friday.