The Trump administration said China had “not altered” its allegedly predatory trade practices in recent months, casting further doubt on the chances of a truce at next week’s G20 summit in Argentina .
Late on Tuesday , the office of the US Trade Representative, led by Robert Lighthizer, a hardliner on China trade, issued a surprise update to an investigation into Chinese trade practices that paved the way for Washington to impose tariffs on more than $200bn of Chinese imports this year .
“China fundamentally has not altered its acts , policies and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation and indeed appears to have taken further unreasonable actions in recent months,” the USTR said.