Trade war 'has not made America great again', says China

China on Sunday said that Washington’s escalating trade war with Beijing has not “made America great again” and has instead damaged the American economy. China stressing that while it wants resolution through talks it will not compromise on core principles.

The comments came in a white paper released by the Chinese government a day after it hit USD 60 billion worth of US goods with new punitive tariffs ranging from five to 25 per cent, in retaliation for Washington raising duty on USD 200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 per cent.

“The (US) tariff measures have not boosted American economic growth. Instead, they have done serious harm to the US economy,” the paper said, pointing to what it described as increased production costs and consumer prices in the United States and threats to economic growth.

Earlier, describing the nature of America's ongoing trade tension with China as a "little squabble", US President Donald Trump hoped that the world's top two economies would be able reach an agreement.

Trump’s remarks came as trade war between the US and China escalated after Trump increased the import duty on Chinese products worth USD 200 billion from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

He has also started the process of a similar increase on the remaining Chinese imports of over USD 300 billion.

 Trump has been demanding that China reduce the massive trade deficit which last year climbed to over USD 539 billion. He is also pressing for verifiable measures for protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), technology transfer and more access to American goods to Chinese markets.