China has hit back with tariffs worth $3 billion on more than 100 US imports after US President Donald Trump raised duties on steel and aluminium last month.

Reuters reported that the country has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 products, including pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts.

The tariffs, which take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China’s finance ministry and matched a list of potential tariffs on US goods published by China on March 23.

The retaliatory tariffs came amid escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have rocked global financial markets in the past week as investors feared a full-blown trade spat between two countries will be damaging for world growth.

Soon after the Chinese announcement, an editorial in the widely read Chinese tabloid Global Times warned that if the US had thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic counter-measures, it can now “say goodbye to that delusion”, Reuters reported.

“Even though China and the US have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly,” the editorial reads.

Meanwhile, the US authorities have already announced plans for further targeted tariffs on Chinese imports, reports the BBC.

According to them, it’s in response to unfair trading practices in China that affect US companies but it raises the possibility of yet more action being taken in what has become a tit-for-tat trade battle, says the BBC report.

US President Trump, however, has insisted that "trade wars are good", and that it should be "easy" for the US to win one.

“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!” he tweeted on Monday.