By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Apr 2 (IANS): The trade war between China and the US escalated on Monday, with Beijing slapping a tariff as high as 25 per cent on 128 American products.

China's tit-for-tat move comes after US President Donald Trump announced to imposed trade charges of up to $60 billion on Chinese imports on March 22 and did not revoke them despite Beijing's stern warning.

The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council has decided to impose a tariff of 15 per cent on 120 items of products imported from the US including fruits and related products, and a tariff of 25 per cent on eight items of imports including pork and related products from the country, according to a statement posted on the ministry website.

The tariffs come into effect from Monday.

Although in violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the US measure went into effect on March 23, which has severely undermined China's interests, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

China advocates and supports a multilateral trade system, the ministry said, noting that to suspend tariff concession on US imports is a just move to safeguard China's interests using WTO rules.

The US said it imposed tariffs because of the intellectual property theft of American companies by China.