WASHINGTON, July 11 — US President Donald Trump today accused China of backsliding on promises to increase purchases of American farm exports.

The president’s latest salvo on Twitter comes the same week that US and Chinese trade officials had their first contact in months in an effort to revive negotiations that nearly collapsed in May.

Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met last month on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan, agreeing to cease further hostilities while the talks resumed.

"Mexico is doing great at the Border, but China is letting us down in that they have not been buying the agricultural products from our great Farmers that they said they would,” Trump said Thursday on Twitter.

"Hopefully they will start soon!”

Following the Osaka summit, Trump announced that, in return for suspending a planned tariff increase on US$300 billion (RM1.2 trillion) in Chinese imports, Beijing had offered to buy "a tremendous amount of food and agriculture product.”

Reducing America’s soaring trade deficit with China has long been a principal aim in Trump’s trade battle with Beijing, which he also accuses of stealing American technology and unfairly intervening in markets.

Since last year, the two countries have traded tariffs on more than US$360 billion in two-way trade. — AFP