Top US and Chinese trade negotiators have had "productive meetings", US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says.
Mnuchin did not elaborate on Twitter on the discussions he and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a top economic adviser to President Xi Jinping, who the two US officials met on Friday in Beijing.
The US delegation had a banquet with Chinese counterparts at a Beijing hotel on Thursday night, a person with knowledge of the meetings said.
But neither country had offered details on how the two sides might de-escalate a tariff war that has roiled financial markets and disrupted manufacturing supply chains.
US duties on $US200 billion ($A282 billion) worth of imports from China are scheduled to rise to 25 per cent from 10 per cent if no deal is reached by March 1 to address US demands that China curb forced technology transfers and better enforce intellectual property rights.
Although US President Donald Trump said earlier in the week that an extension of the deadline was possible if a "real deal" was close, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said the White House had made no such decision.
Several sources informed about the meetings told Reuters there was little indication negotiators had made major progress on sticking points to pave the way for a potential meeting between Xi and Trump in coming weeks to hammer out a deal.
"Stalemate on the important stuff," said one of the sources, all of whom requested anonymity because the talks are confidential.
"There's still a lot of distance between parties on structural and enforcement issues. I wouldn't quite call it hitting a wall, but it's not a field of dreams either," said a second source.
The Financial Times cited sources as saying the two sides were trying to reach a memorandum of understanding to help bring about a leaders meeting.
A third source told Reuters the White House was "irate" over earlier reports that the Trump administration was considering a 60-day extension to the tariff deadline.
Lighthizer and Mnuchin left their Beijing hotel on Friday afternoon without taking questions from reporters.
