China has cancelled upcoming trade talks with the United States and will not send vice-premier Liu He to Washington next week.

Quoting sources. the Wall Street Journal reports a mid-level delegation was due to travel to Washington ahead of Liu’s visit, but the trip has now been abandoned.

Earlier this week, China added 60 billion dollars of US products to its import tariff list as it retaliated against US duties on 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods set to go into effect from September 24.