China says it will take on the US "at any cost" after Trump threatens more tariffs

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced on Friday that it is not afraid of fighting a trade war and it will "follow through to the end without hesitating, fighting back at any cost" after being threatened by the US administration with further tariffs.

Overnight, President Donald Trump appeared to open the door to 'upping the ante' on his initial gambit of levying tariffs on $50bn-worth of Chinese goods, with the apparent aim of forcing Beijing to clam down on its alleged theft of foreign intellectual property rights.

That was after China responded to his initial proposal to implement tariffs with its own list of $50bn-worth of American goods, mainly agricultural ones.

"In light of China's unfair retaliation, I have instructed the [United States Trade Representative] to consider whether $100bn of additional tariffs would be appropriate," the president said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the initial reaction in global capital markets was restrained, with S&P 500 futures pointing to a fall of less than one per cent at the opening bell on Wall Street, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index ended the Friday session just 0.18% lower at 3,131.11.

Similarly, the yen - towards which investors tend to flock at the least sign of trouble - was little changed versus its US counterpart, trading at 107.407.

Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse said that the threats are the "dumbest possible way to do this" and he hopes the president is just blowing off steam.

"China is guilty of many things, but the President has no actual plan to win right now. He's threatening to light American agriculture on fire," Sasse added.

The Chinese foreign minister said: "China and the US as two world powers should treat each other on a basis of equality and with respect. By waving a big stick of trade sanctions against China, the US has picked a wrong target."