Haier Group, the world’s largest white goods company, has suspended plans to sell products made in the US by its GE Appliances brand in China, citing the deepening trade war between Washington and Beijing, its chief executive said.

Haier, based in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, acquired General Electric’s home appliances business for $5.4bn in 2016, in one of the highest-profile Chinese deals in the US. It planned to begin selling the brand’s kitchen products in November.

“Originally there was no problem [importing from the US] but now there may be problems,” Zhang Ruimin, Haier’s chief executive, told the Financial Times. “I think Chinese consumers are most interested in [GE] kitchen products. But the US government thought differently.”