Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had a phone conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday morning, at the invitation of the U.S. side. 

The two sides have agreed to hold the 13th round of China-U.S. high-level economic and trade consultations in Washington early next month. 

Chinese and U.S. chief trade negotiators agreed to jointly take concrete actions to create favorable conditions for bilateral consultations. Negotiating teams from the two sides will carry out detailed consultation in mid-September, making full preparations for the trade talks in October, said China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

People who also joined the phone conversation were Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang, and deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission Ning Jizhe.

China on Monday lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), a day after the U.S. imposed tariffs on 300 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods, according to the MOFCOM.

China will firmly safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests and resolutely uphold the multilateral trading system as well as the international trade order in line with WTO rules, the ministry said.  

On Sunday, part of the new additional tariffs imposed by the U.S. government on 300 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese imports took effect, and the rest will come into force on December 15. Meanwhile, China's first batch of retaliatory tariffs of either 10 or 5 percent on 75 billion U.S. dollars' worth of U.S. goods also went into effect.

U.S. businesses are concerned about tariffs

Fed's latest Beige Book, released ahead of the Fed's September 17-18 policy meeting, gathered concerns by businesses about tariffs. Some say trade policy could subdue investment, increase cost for manufacturers and bring more uncertainties to farmers.

The protracted trade tensions have triggered a downturn in manufacturing, threatening the U.S. economic expansion. The latest report by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed that U.S. manufacturing activities contracted for the first time in three years in August.

JPMorgan Chase earlier predicted that continuous U.S. tariffs would cost American households up to 1,000 U.S. dollars annually on average.

Consumer Technology Association, a trade organization representing over 2,200 consumer technology companies in the U.S., called the U.S. tariff move the "worst economic mistake" in decades.

Tariffs will cost the technology industry nearly seven billion U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone – and tariffs will force consumers to pay more for their holiday gifts, said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the association.

China has sufficient countermeasures, opposes mounting trade war 

China has sufficient countermeasures but what should be discussed under current circumstances is the elimination of the further additional tariffs to be imposed by the United States on 550 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese imports and preventing further escalation of the trade war, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday. 

Spokesperson Gao Feng told a regular news briefing that China firmly opposes escalating trade war. 

China has lodged solemn representation to the U.S. over the tariffs. China has repeatedly stressed that escalating trade war goes against the interests of China, the United States and people all over the world, and may even trigger disastrous consequences for the world, Gao said. 

In the latest tit-for-tat escalation of the trade war between the world's two largest economies, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would levy an additional five percent duty on about 550 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods. 

The move came hours after China unveiled retaliatory tariffs on 75 billion U.S. dollars' worth of U.S. goods. 

(With input from Xinhua)