Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, said Washington was “ready to engage” with Beijing ahead of a high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump, the US president, and Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, at the G20 summit in Osaka, adding that there was a shared goal to “resolve” the trade dispute.

In congressional testimony on Tuesday, Mr Lighthizer said he had set up a “conversation” with his Chinese counterpart this week, to set the stage for the summit. Mr Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, would then be meeting with Chinese officials in Japan to set the stage for the summit, he said.

“It’s in the interest of both China and the US to have some kind of a successful agreement, the president has said he definitely wants an agreement if we get a great agreement for America,” Mr Lighthizer said.