BEIJING – China has warned retaliation if Washington imposes new tradepenalties. The warning came following a report the Trump administrationwill propose increasing the tariff rate on an additional 200 billion USdollars of Chinese imports.

A foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said Beijing is ready fordialogue and consultation to defuse the escalating dispute.

He said if the United States takes further measures that escalate thesituation, China will definitely fight back, as we are determined tosafeguard our legitimate and lawful rights and interests.

Washington imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on 34 billion US dollarsof Chinese goods on 6th July in response to complaints that Beijing stealsor pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded byimposing the same penalties on the same amount of U.S. imports.