U.S. using false accusations to intimidate, China says

The US and China imposed another round of tariffs on each other on Monday, further escalating the trade war between the two countries.

The latest volley against Beijing brings the amount of goods hit by duties to more than US$250 billion, about half of China's United States exports, with U.S. consumers set to increasingly feel the pain.

It leaves Beijing hitting US$110 billion worth of United States goods, almost everything it buys from the US.

Just last month, the USA imposed a further 25 percent taxes on $16 billion worth of goods from China, in its second wave of tariffs against the Asian superpower.

American officials say Chinese plans for state-led development of global competitors in robotics and other technologies violate its market-opening obligations and might erode US industrial leadership. Trump has been repeatedly threatening to add duties on remaining imports from its trade partner if it retaliates. The Chinese government had given no public indication whether it would accept the invitation.

Envoys last met August 22 in Washington but reported no progress.

Dialogue between the world's two biggest economies appears severed. The ratings firm downgraded its world growth forecast for 2019 by 0.1 percentage point to 3.1 per cent and warned of further downside risks.

"The trade war is now a reality", Fitch chief economist Brian Coulton said in the release.

The first American tariffs targeted goods Washington said benefit from improper Chinese industrial policies. American regulators tried to limit the public impact by focusing on industrial machinery and components, but the latest $200 billion list includes bicycles, wooden furniture and other consumer goods.

Chinese regulators have tried to cushion the blow on their own economy by targeting American goods such as soybeans, natural gas, fruit, whisky and automobiles that are available from Europe, Latin America and other Asian countries.

The U.S. and China implemented another round of tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of one another's goods on Monday, which has the potential to raise U.S. prices on some common consumer items. The Chinese tariff "restricts the target market a bit for second-wave developers" in the United States, he said. Beijing can handle a trade war; they surely don't want a shooting war on their border.

Unlike the first wave of USA export terminals, which weren't predicated on feeding the Chinese market, the next wave of investment relies on China's sheer size and growth potential.

After accusing the United States of launching the "largest trade war in economic history", analysts worry Beijing could shift to threatened "qualitative" retaliatory measures, such as damaging USA firms in China or restricting the export of crucial items.

Chinese leaders have announced changes this year including tariff cuts and plans to end ownership limits in their auto industry. By essentially limiting USA access to one of the most important gas markets, the tariff could have a chilling effect on the next wave of US gas export projects under planning.

But the blast from Beijing came as US political news website Axios reported that the White House was preparing to go further, and would launch an "administration wide" broadside against China spearheaded by US National Security Council officials.