After months of escalating trade wars, some kind of breakthrough came last December. Both countries agreed to try to agree on customs duties.
There has been a strong optimism that a deal could be possible and imminent, that optimism threw Donald Trump over on Sunday. Instead of reducing the barriers to trade, he has now said he wants to raise the fees on a large number of products.
Countries such as South Korea, Canada and Mexico have so far agreed on tariffs on new trade agreements with the United States. But the talks with the EU and China have not yet led to any agreements.
What are the customs duties today?
So far, the United States has introduced three rounds of duties on Chinese goods, worth a total of more than $ 250 billion (approximately SEK 2,400 billion).
Customs duties are between 10% and 25% and cover a wide range of industrial and consumer goods - everything from handbags to equipment to build railways.
But Trump has threatened to impose tariff duties on virtually everything imported from China. At the same time he wants fees on goods such as washing machines from all over the world, which would further hit China.
Beijing has responded with its own customs duties on US goods. And at the same time threatened to increase the number of products with fees, unless the US withdraws its threats.
Why customs?
Customs, in theory, makes goods manufactured in the United States cheaper to buy than imported goods. In this way, the domestic economy is stimulated.
What have the duties meant, so far?
In principle, everyone claims to be a loser. Not even US companies say they benefit from more and increased customs duties. In addition, the IMF has warned that a full trade war between the two countries will severely weaken the entire global economy.