WASHINGTON/BEIJING: The trade war between US and China picked steam afterthe two biggest economies in the world slapped half-baked tariffs on eachother.

Escalating Trump’s ‘America first’ trade policy, US President Donald Trumpon Thursday imposed $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, alleging’unfair’ intellectual property theft. The action followed a seven-monthinvestigation into the allegations, a long-standing point of contentionbetween US-China trade relations.

Immediately after, China also raised the tariffs on US pork, aluminium andother goods in response to Trump tariff hikes. The official website ofChina’s commerce ministry has a proposed list of 128 US products aspotential retaliation targets.

In addition to tariffs, the White House also plans to impose new investmentrestrictions and take action against China at the World Trade Organization.

“We have a tremendous intellectual property theft problem. It’s going tomake us a much stronger, much richer nation,” Trump said.

“This has been long in the making,” Trump told reporters in the White Houseat the ceremony while signing his memorandums targeting China’s economicactions.

The US currently has nearly $500 billion of trade deficit with China.

In a statement by the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C., China “forcefullydenounced” President Trump`s decision of imposing trade tariffs on Chinesegoods and accused of putting the two countries on the brink for a tradewar, according to media reports.

“If a trade war were initiated by the US, China would fight to the end todefend its own legitimate interests with all necessary measures,” theembassy said.