Experts have discounted senior US officials' recent tough rhetoric on China as a sign of a potential trade war between the world's two largest economies.

In an Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross blamed the trade policies of China and Europe for causing US trade deficits and for not being "fair, free and reciprocal".

The Office of the US Trade Representative said in a recent report to Congress that its primary goal is to defend the US government's ability to impose duties on China for dumping goods at artificially low prices or unfairly subsidizing companies.