Trump aide says China could be evicted from WTO as trade tensions ramp up ahead of G20 summit

Escalation in tensions comes despite pledge from both Trump and Xi to strengthen ties

The US has once again ramped up trade tensions with China, accusing it of intellectual property theft ahead of a crucial meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this month.

The US trade representative’s office released a 53-page report in which it accused China of conducting a global espionage campaign to collect sensitive commercial information, and said the country operated an unfair technology transfer regime which requires US companies to hand over tech and intellectual property to Chinese competitors.

“We completed this update as part of this administration’s strengthened monitoring and enforcement effort,” trade representative Robert Lighthizer said. “This update shows that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices.”

In response to the report, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said US officials should read a white paper published by the Chinese government in September that claims China “firmly protects” intellectual property rights.

Meanwhile, one of Mr Trump’s top economic advisers has suggested that the case could be made for evicting China from the World Trade Organisation.

Kevin Hassett, chair of the president’s council of economic advisers, said that China had “misbehaved” and said the US had been failed by the WTO.

The latest escalation of tensions between Washington and Beijing comes weeks after Mr Trump and Mr Xi agreed to “strengthen economic exchanges”.

The two economies have been locked in a battle over trade for months now, which has seen the US impose tariffs on $250bn (£195bn) worth of Chinese goods, and the Asian power retaliating with $110bn of duties on US goods.

The WTO has previously warned that the US-China trade war poses a grave threat to the global economy, putting millions of jobs at risk.

Last month, the organisation’s director-general, Roberto Azevedo, said: “Without action to ease tensions and recommit to cooperation in trade, we could see serious harm done to the multilateral trading system.

“The long-term economic consequences of this could be severe. These effects would cause significant disruptions for workers, firms and communities as they adjust to this new reality.

“Potentially millions of workers would need to find new jobs; firms would be looking for new products and markets; and communities for new sources of growth.”