Beijing and Washington have swapped a string of good gestures in recent weeks

Beijing and Washington have swapped a string of good gestures in recent weeks. Trump announced early last month to delay a planned tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports by two weeks until Oct 15, and China also said earlier that it was exempting 16 types of US products from duties.

Late last month, China's Commerce Ministry announced that Chinese companies have concluded "significant purchases" of soybeans and pork from the US in accordance with market principles and WTO rules.

Since early September, China has booked deals for about 3.5 million tons of US soybeans, the US Agriculture Department said in a report on Monday.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow noted the buying of some agricultural commodities from the US is a "good sign".

"It is possible that some additional progress will be made with China toward the end of the week," he in a Fox News interview on Monday.

"We are open to wherever they may bring. We will be open to it, short term, long term, we will be open to it," he said.

The chief economic adviser also said that delisting Chinese companies traded on US exchanges "is not on the table".

"The delisting is not on the table. I don't know where that came from," Kudlow told reporters. "What we're looking at, actually, is investor protection, US investor protections ... transparency and compliance with a number of laws," he said.

Late last month, leading US business groups said they expect the latest goodwill gestures, demonstrated by governments of the two countries logged in a protracted trade war, would usher in "productive" talks and put an end to the tariff increases.