By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Mar 23 (IANS): In a tit-for-tat move, China on Friday threatened the US and said it was considering higher tariffs on US agriculture and steel products after American President Donald Trump imposed trade charges of up to $60 billion on Chinese imports.

After Trump's decision on Thursday, a livid China announced 15-per cent tariff on products including fruits, nuts, wines and seamless steel tubes and a 25-per cent tariff on pork and recycled aluminum products.

"The measures will be implemented in two stages: in the first stage, the 15-per cent tariff will be imposed if the two countries could not reach an agreement on trade issues within scheduled time; in the second stage, the 25-per cent import tax will be imposed after evaluating the impact caused by the US policies," Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese Commerce Ministry as saying.

This is an escalation of a trade war between the two countries who are the largest trading partners in the world.

Despite stern warnings by Beijing, Trump went ahead by slapping the charges.

On March 8, US had slapped tariff on Chinese steel (25 per cent) and aluminium (10 per cent) products, with initial exemptions for Canada and Mexico..

US measures are in response to the American companies' intellectual property theft by China.