US-China trade war: Trump to make dispute ‘UNBEARABLY PAINFUL’ warns Steve Bannon

President Trump continues to ramp up pressure on Beijing after he imposed tariffs on $200 billion (£153 billion) worth of Chinese goods at 10 percent.

The US administration is expected to raise to rate to 25 percent by the end of 2018.

This is now the third time Trump has imposed tariffs on China, which has made Chinese leader Xi Jinping retaliate by imposing tariffs on a range of US goods.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who claims to have helped Trump draw up the trade war plan, has been aggressive in his quest against China for numerous years.

He told Prospect in 2017: “We’re at economic war with China. It’s in all their literature.

“One of us is going to be a hegemony in 25 or 30 years, and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path.”

Mr Bannon added that Trump’s strategy is to make the trade war with China “unprecedentedly large” and “unbearably painful” for Beijing.

He also noted that the US leader “will not back down before victory”.

Mr Bannon said the aim for Trump was not just to force China to give up its “unfair trade practices”, but also to “re-industrialise America”.

Commenting on the issue, he said: “Our factories got shipped out of here.

“Wall Street made a fortune.

“The private equity made a fortune.

“Right now, President Trump’s focus is on stopping it.”

Mr Bannon said Trump would “never back down in the trade war with China”, even though the Republican firebrand knew the policy would face “massive resistance domestically and internationally”.

The former investment banker also noted that tariffs have previously been limited to imports of between roughly $10 billion (£8 billion) and $30 billion (£23 billion).

He added that Trump’s latest round of tariffs on more than $500 billion (£382 billion) worth of Chinese goods had “caught Beijing off guard”.

Commenting on the measure, he said: “It’s not just any tariff.

“It’s tariffs on a scale and depth that is previously inconceivable in US history.”

Mr Bannon said the Chinese had relied on “round after round of talks” to take the force out of the US’s intended measures, but noted these tactics would not work.

He said: “They always want to have a strategic dialogue to tap things along.

“They never envisioned that somebody would actually do this.”

Trump’s former chief strategist, who left the administration after a tumultuous stint, said trade had always been at the top of Trump’s campaign strategy.