China's government says it will postpone planned punitive tariffs on United States-made automobiles and other goods following an interim trade deal with Washington.

Sunday's announcement came after Washington agreed to postpone a planned tariff hike on $160 billion of Chinese goods and to cut in half penalties that already were imposed.

China hopes to work with the US on the basis of equality and mutual respect to properly address each other's core concerns and promote the stable development of Chinese-US economic and trade relations, said a Cabinet statement.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that under Friday's agreement, China committed to buy $40 billion of American farm products over the next two years. He said China also promised to end its long-standing practice of pressuring companies to hand over their technology as a condition of market access.

Beijing had planned to impose 25 per cent duties on American-made autos on Sunday, which would have raised the total charge to 40pc. Hardest hit were Germany's BMW AG and Daimler AGs Mercedes unit, which ship US-made SUVs and other cars to China.

Other goods were targeted for 10pc and 5pc penalties.