China has warned the U.S to calm down as it threatens a serious escalation of their trade war.

President Donald Trump wants his trade team to consider ramping up the rate he might tax 200 billion dollars of Chinese imports.

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough has the latest.

President Trump is threatening to effectively tax half China’s exports of goods to the United States – and he wants to turn the screw.

Those additional proposed tariffs were to be taxed at 10 percent. Now Trump’s considering 25 percent.

It would potentially apply to thousands of product lines from live eels to shoelaces—all aimed at reducing a widening U.S. trade deficit with China, but creating danger of higher consumer prices.

Appealing for calm in this escalating battle, China’s Foreign Minister says Washington’s strategy won’t work.

“If the U.S. were able to reduce the import of China-made products – via the tariffs – but they still import similar products from other countries. It doesn’t solve what the U.S. calls a ‘trade imbalance’ issue,” Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, said.

The Trump administration is also trying to pressure China into curbing what it calls unfair trade practices to gain a competitive edge over the U.S. Beijing denies these charges.

U.S. trade officials will spend the next month looking at the potential impact of raising these tariffs before Trump makes a decision on whether to impose them.

But as China’s retaliatory tariffs start to hurt U.S companies, even Trump’s own Republican lawmakers are trying to pass legislation aimed at restraining him.