Negotiations on a trade agreement between the United States and China, which were supposed to take place this Saturday via a video conference, have been postponed, RG reported referring to Bloomberg. 

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He, and other senior officials planned to take part in them.

Thus, the first meeting since the entry into force of the agreement on February 15 did not take place. The parties were to review the progress of the first stage trade deal.

After the signing of a trade agreement in January, tensions between Washington and Beijing have intensified, Bloomberg reported. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused China of spreading the coronavirus pandemic, as well as imposing a national security law on Hong Kong by the Chinese authorities. An additional irritant between the world's two largest economies has been Trump's threat to ban Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat over national security concerns. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently suggested that Washington may impose similar bans on other Chinese companies.