Theo Leggett
International business correspondent

After several months in which trade tensions between the US and China have escalated rapidly, this was the first sign of a thawing of relations, with the US delegation claiming they had found a constructive path forward.

Ahead of today’s announcement the US tariff on most Chinese imports stood at 145%. That will now be reduced to 30% for the next 90 days.

China has reduced its own duties on US goods from 125% to 10% for the same period.

The US measures still include an extra component aimed at putting pressure on Beijing to do more to curb the illegal trade in fentanyl, a powerful opioid drug.

But US officials said they had been positively surprised by the willingness of China to deal with the problem.