Washington DC - The Trump administration is lifting restrictions on Chinese technology exports and a range of other products as Beijing and Washington try to carefully navigate a truce in the trade war.

Three of the world's largest electronic design automation software developers on Wednesday said that they are restoring access to their systems for customers based in China.

The move comes after the US quietly lifted restrictions on the export of chip design software – as well as other technologies – to China, and indicates a potential thawing in US-Chinese relations.

In the roughly half-year since President Donald Trump returned to office, relations between Washington and Beijing have been at a historical low point, largely due to the US' brutal tariff regime.

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The trade war triggered by Trump's tariffs saw Beijing move on rare earth minerals and launch its own set of tariffs against a range of US products.

Over the last few weeks, however, a fragile truce has been in place as the two governments negotiate a sustainable end to the conflict.

"President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade," Trump said of the truce in June. "This would be a great WIN for both countries!"

According to a report from Reuters, the US on Wednesday also sent letters to ethane producers rescinding licensing restrictions on exports to China.

"The U.S. have escalated to de-escalate," a source close to the US government told Reuters. "They put restrictions on many more items in order to get the Chinese to back off on rare earths."

"As the U.S. and China continue to hold to this framework agreement, we're gonna see a lot of these restrictions go away. Going back to a status quo, where we were at in Feb/March."