President Donald Trump is pushing his bitter trade war with China into an aggressive and unpredictable new phase, bewildering Wall Street and risking an even bigger slowdown heading into a 2020 election in which the economy was supposed to be the president’s strongest selling point.

Agriculture has been a weapon of choice in the escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that things are going well with China, insisting U.S. consumers are not paying for import taxes he has imposed on goods from that country although economists say Americans are footing the bill.

Accuses U.S. of violating ‘consensus’ reached in Osaka on not raising further duties

President Donald Trump abruptly escalated his trade war with China, announcing that he would impose a 10% tariff on a further $300 billion in Chinese imports in a move set to hit American consumers more directly than any other in his trade wars so far.

The brief trade talks in Shanghai this week between top U.S. and Chinese officials were "constructive," the White House said Wednesday, adding that negotiations are expected to pick up again in Washington, D.C., in early September.

Vietnam, the apparent candidate to pick up the windfalls of the China-US trade war, is showing concerns over its long- and short-term economic development, although the country has seen months of encouraging trade statistics. 

Chinese state media is playing down expectations for any significant breakthrough from this week’s trade talks with the United States, while US President Donald Trump said Beijing could delay the deal until after the 2020 presidential election.

For more than a year, the world's two largest economies have slapped billions of dollars of tariffs on each other's imports

US President Donald Trump instigated the trade war with China in 2018, following complaints of unfair trade policies and practices from its partner.