Donald Trump, Xi Jinping likely to meet next month on sidelines of G20 summit

US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping are likely to meet next month to hash out their differences on trade. However, nothing officially has been announced till now. The meeting is expected to take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit which is scheduled to take place in Osaka on June 28-29. The world's top two economies ended two days of negotiations in Washington on Friday with no deal.

The chances of Trump and Xi meeting during the Group of 20 summit in Japan in late June "are probably pretty good," the top White House aide said.

Trump had accused Beijing of reneging on its commitments in trade talks and ordered new punitive duties, which took effect Friday, on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, raising them to 25 percent from 10 percent.

With punishing US tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese merchandise due to jump after midnight, Trump had earlier told reporters he had received a letter from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, and would likely speak to him by telephone later.

“It’s possible to do it,” Trump said of the trade deal at the White House. “I did get last night a very beautiful letter from President Xi.” But Trump warned he was also more than happy to use tariffs in resolving his differences with China.

“I am different than a lot of people. I happen to think that tariffs, for our country, are very powerful.”

Chinese producers said the abrupt tariff hike announcement wreaked havoc on operations and would bring high costs, layoffs and further shifts of production to Southeast Asia.

While US companies complain of lost export markets, disrupted supply chains and higher costs, the US continues to see steady growth and falling unemployment.