Oil prices fall amid US-China trade impasse

Brent crude futures were at $70.49 a barrel at 0013 GMT, down 12 cents, or 0.2%, from their last close. Brent ended the previous session little changed.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $61.31 per barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.4%, from their previous settlement. WTI closed the last session steady on the day.

The United States and China appeared at a deadlock over trade negotiations on Sunday as Washington demanded promises of concrete changes to Chinese law and Beijing said it would not swallow any “bitter fruit” that harmed its interests.

The trade conflict between the world’s top two economies escalated on Friday, with the United States hiking tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods after President Donald Trump said Beijing “broke the deal” by reneging on earlier commitments made during months of negotiations

The United States and China together accounted for 34% of global oil consumption in the first quarter of 2019, data from the International Energy Agency showed.