Exclusive: China sends written response to U.S. trade reform demands - sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has delivered a written response to U.S. demands for wide-ranging trade reforms, three U.S. government sources said on Wednesday, a move that could trigger negotiations to bring an end to a withering trade war between the world's top economies.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping when the Group of 20 industrialized nations gathers in Argentina later this month.

Trump has imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports to force concessions from Beijing on the list of demands that would change the terms of trade between the world's two largest economies. China has responded with import tariffs on U.S. goods.

Trump has repeatedly railed against Beijing over intellectual property theft, industrial subsidies, Chinese entry barriers to American businesses and the U.S. trade deficit with China.

The United States has said it would not start negotiations on trade until it saw a concrete response from China to its demands.

A U.S. team led by Treasury Under Secretary David Malpass discussed trade issues with a Chinese team via videoconference on Tuesday, a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and David Lawder; Writing by Simon Webb; Editing by Tim Ahmann)