U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground. (Nathan Howard/The Columbian files) Photo

A few days after President Donald Trump imposed a new 15 percent tariff on many Chinese goods, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, said Congress should give the president room to resolve the trade war on his own.

“I’m not totally sure where the president is going to go from this point. So I’m watching to see what I can do to mitigate the impacts,” Herrera Beutler said in an interview Wednesday.

“If it bleeds into next year, I don’t think we’re going to get the deal we hope we can get out of China,” she added. “I think he needs to work fast, and I think we need to give him a latitude to do that.”

Trump has complained that previous trade policies were unfair to U.S. interests and said that the Chinese government has manipulated its currency and tolerated theft of U.S. intellectual property.

On Sept. 1, Trump placed a new tariff on a range of consumer goods, escalating the existing trade war he started 18 months ago. In turn, Beijing retaliated by increasing tariffs on $75 billion worth of American products.