WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - US President Donald Trump cast doubt on the future of his phase one trade deal with China, one of the biggest accomplishments of his first term, saying on Friday (May 8) that he was struggling with Beijing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Look, I'm having a very hard time with China," Mr Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends. "I made a great trade deal months before this whole thing happened. And it was kicking in, you know, a month ago and starting to kick in and starting to produce and then this happens and it sort of overrides so much."

Mr Trump's remarks contrasted with statements from Chinese and US officials earlier in the day that followed a phone call among the country's top trade negotiators - Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He, and US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

They pledged to create favourable conditions for implementation of the bilateral trade deal and cooperate on the economy and public health, according to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

But Mr Trump has mused about somehow punishing China for the Covid-19 outbreak, which has so far killed some 77,000 Americans. He's been asked this week whether he might impose tariffs on China because of the virus, which he has suggested is the result of research the country was conducting in a lab in central China's Wuhan city.

"Nobody else ever made a trade deal with China, because they couldn't do it, because China wouldn't do it, because China had a one-way street to rip off the United States. We were losing US$500 billion (S$707 billion) a year, five hundred," Mr Trump said on Friday.

"And so I'm very torn, I have not decided yet, if you want to know the truth."

A statement from Mr Lighthizer's office following the phone call was more positive.

"Both sides agreed that good progress is being made on creating the governmental infrastructures necessary to make the agreement a success," the USTR said.

"In spite of the current global health emergency, both countries fully expect to meet their obligations under the agreement in a timely manner," the statement added.

Relations have deteriorated between the two countries because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese officials have denied US allegations that the pandemic is the result of work conducted at the Wuhan laboratory, and China's foreign ministry has accused some US officials of trying "to shift their own responsibility for their poor handling of the epidemic to others".

Friday's phone call was the first time Mr Liu and Mr Lighthizer have officially spoken about the agreement since it was signed in January, which was just before the pandemic hit the world's two biggest economies and upended global supply chains. The deal called for Mr Liu and Mr Lighthizer to talk every six months.

S&P 500 futures hit their session highs after reports that China and the US had a phone call on trade. Japan saw gains of about 1.5 per cent, the largest moves, while shares also rose in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney. The yuan nudged higher.

Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he would be able to report in the next week or two if he is happy with how the trade deal is progressing.

Chinese purchases of US exports so far have been behind the pace needed to reach the target of the first year's US$76.7 billion increase, as imports of US goods declined by 5.9 per cent in the first four months of 2020 from a year ago due to the virus outbreak. Given that imports in 2019 were smaller than 2017, the pressure to catch up is mounting.

The uncertainty and weaker economy caused by the Covid-19 outbreak could impact China's ability to meet those targets, including through lower domestic demand, clogged logistics and supply chains, and reduced US capacity to supply goods and services.

Still, some purchases are being made, with China buying six cargoes of soya beans on Thursday and more than 600,000 tons of corn recently.

China has made progress in other sections of the the trade deal, lifting restrictions on a variety of US agricultural imports including beef and poultry, scrapping foreign ownership limits in the financial sector, and publishing a guideline on intellectual property protection.