The trade war between China and the US escalated on Monday, with Beijing slapping a tariff as high as 25 per cent on 128 American products. China`s tit-for-tat move comes after US President Donald Trump announced to impose trade charges of up to $60 billion on Chinese imports on March 22 and did not revoke them despite Beijing`s stern warning. The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council has decided to impose a tariff of 15 per cent on 120 items of products imported from the US including fruits and related products, and a tariff of 25 per cent on eight items of imports including pork and related products from the country, according to a statement posted on the ministry website.

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The tariffs come into effect from Monday. Although in violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the US measure went into effect on March 23, which has severely undermined China`s interests, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying. China advocates and supports a multilateral trade system, the ministry said, noting that to suspend tariff concession on US imports is a just move to safeguard China`s interests using WTO rules.

The US said it imposed tariffs because of the intellectual property theft of American companies by China.