China said Friday it is retaliating against U.S. tariffs by imposing penalties on the same scale against the United States.China's commerce ministry announced the tariffs after President Donald Trump said earlier Friday the United will hit $50 billion of goods from China with a 25 percent tariff.The ministry did not detail specifically what goods China will penalize.China had warned the White House earlier Friday that it would respond "in the first instance" to protect its economy if Trump moved forward with any tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.At the daily briefing here, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, "If the U.S. side adopts unilateralism and protectionism and damages China 's interests, we will respond in the first instance and take necessary measures to firmly safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. In a late-night statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would impose trade barriers of the “same scale and the same strength.”

The Chinese government said Trump’s tariffs were “damaging” relations and “undermining the world trade order.”

U.S. and Chinese officials in recent weeks had made progress on a deal that involved up to $70 billion in additional purchases of American products. The announcement made in a statement released by the Customs Commission that came a few hours after US President Donald Trump announced that his administration was imposing a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of goods from China that contained “industrially significant technologies.”



China’s Commerce Ministry announced late Friday that, although it did not want to have a trade war with the United States, it would respond to new tariffs announced by Washington in a forceful and immediate manner. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Friday the United States would begin collecting duties on 818 Chinese imports valued at $34 billion as of July 6.
The United States imposes a 25% tariff on goods imported from China worth $50 billion, set to come into effect on July 6, and accuses Beijing of "intellectual copyright theft".