Investing.com - President Donald Trump appears to have backed away from escalating the trade clash between the U.S. and China.The Trump administration is moving away from plans for a blanket ban on Chinese firms buying stakes in U.S. companies in order to protect sensitive domestic technologies.Instead, the U.S. Treasury Department is pushing Congress to strengthen a panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment to protect U.S. intellectual property rights.That’s a less confrontational approach, which has calmed fears that the trade spat between Washington and Beijing was spiraling, following the threat of tit-for-tat tariffs.Investors are fearful that an all-out trade war could roil financial markets and dent global growth.Earlier this week, there were reports that the U.S. would use national emergency laws to prevent Chinese companies from investing in the U.S. - and possibly other countries too.But now, the White House seems to have backed away from such an inflammatory step