US President Donald Trump denied on Wednesday speculation about a trade war between Beijing and Washington.

“We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!” Trump tweeted.

Earlier on Wednesday, China Beijing has made another step in retaliating to the tariff war initiated by Trump.

“The State Council of China has decided to impose a 25-percent duty on 106 items of 14 categories of goods imported from the United States, including soybeans, cars and chemical products,” according to local media outlets.

The Chinese government added that the exact date of the introduction of Beijing’s trade measures will depend on when US authorities announce the introduction of their duties on Chinese goods.

The move comes as the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a press release on Tuesday that the United States was set to impose additional tariffs on around 1,300 Chinese products.

Late last month, Trump signed a memorandum to impose new tariffs on imports from China, which he said would make the US “a much stronger, much richer nation.”

Source: Sputnik