US and Chinese negotiators concluded the sixth round of cabinet-level negotiations in Beijing on Friday with no indication of substantial progress on core issues that President Donald Trump has said must be part of any “real deal” to end the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.  The US negotiating team was expected to sit down with President Xi Jinping later on Friday, reciprocating Mr. Trump’s courtesy meeting with Vice Premier Liu He in Washington late last month.

The impasse is increasing pressure on Mr Trump to delay a scheduled increase in tariffs on March 2 in order to facilitate a possible make-or-break summit meeting with President Xi Jinping.

If an agreement is not reached by March 1, Mr Trump has said he will increase the punitive tariff rate on $2oobn of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent.  According to people briefed on the negotiations, both sides had hoped to at least produce a “memorandum of understanding” by the end of Friday that could help pave the way for a meeting between the two presidents next month.

When US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mr Liu held their last round of trade talks in late January, the two sides failed to come up with a draft document as a basis for further discussions.  Investor uncertainty over the outcome of the talks weighed on stock markets across Asia on Friday. The CSI 300 index of companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed 1.9 percent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped by almost 2 percent.

The people added that over recent days, Chinese officials have promised to provide a full list of all central and local government subsidies in accordance with World Trade Organization reporting requirements. They will also take steps to ensure that the subsidies do not violate WTO rules.  Mr Lighthizer’s team, however, is sceptical about such promises. “China’s system is so opaque that you would have to take their word that the WTO notification is complete,” one of his team said.