New Zealand faces risks rather than opportunities from the Trump administration's escalating trade war with China, Trade Minister David Parker and his National Party counterpart Todd McClay are forecasting.

Parker said New Zealand was dependent on "rules-based trade agreements" and rising protectionism around the world was not in the country's interests.

President Trump has announced tariffs on a further US$200 billion (NZ$304b) of Chinese imports from next week.

The new tariffs will start at 10 per cent and rise to 25 per cent from the beginning of next year, and come of top of 25 per cent tariffs on another $50b of imports imposed in August.

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China retaliated against the first round of tariffs in kind, hitting American soybeans among other goods.

Victoria University professor Siah Hwee Ang, an expert in Asian trade, forecast China would retaliate to the latest US tariffs within days.

SUSAN WALSH/AP President Trump has ratcheted up the trade war with China.

"I feel China will respond quite quickly – there will be no way the current China not respond to a threat like this."

The tariffs could create opportunities for Kiwi exporters, in both countries, Hwee Ang said.

But the tariffs could also be expected to push up the price of some goods in New Zealand shops.

For example, higher prices for raw materials in the US could flow through into higher prices for food packaging which could impact the price of goods in New Zealand supermarkets, he said.

Parker said the Government did not believe the effect of the tariffs on New Zealand – for example from more costly imported goods – would be large "and neither do we think there will be any large benefit to New Zealand".

DOUG FIELD/STUFF The US-China trade war could have some impact on the prices Kiwi pay for goods due to the interconnected nature of global supply chains, an expert warns.

"The biggest risk to New Zealand lies in the undermining of international rules-based agreements," he said.

The tariffs also highlighted the importance of regional trade agreements such as the CPTTP (trans-Pacific trade) agreement and New Zealand's arrangements with Europe "because they of course give New Zealand protection against this sort of thing happening to us", Parker said.

McClay said no escalation of tariffs was good for a small country like New Zealand, "particularly between the world's largest and second-largest economies", and he was not sure if the Government was paying enough attention to its trading partners.

There could be some short-term opportunities for New Zealand from the tariffs but the risks were greater, he said.

"The concern I have is whilst the tariffs are directed at China at the moment they could well go elsewhere.

TOM LEE/STUFF Trade Minister David Parker does not expect big effects on NZ from the latest tariffs but is concerned about the broad risks to "rules-based trade".

"We have seen that with the steel and aluminum tariffs that Trump put in place that captured New Zealand even though we are a small exporter and buy more from them than we sell."

Countries such as New Zealand that stood up for "dependable rules-based systems" needed to engage with the Trump administration more, he said.

"Although the Prime Minister is about to head off to New York that is not Washington – she is not visiting America, she is visiting the United Nations."

It would be devastating to the New Zealand economy if it faced increased tariffs on some of its big exports to the US, he said.

"We seem to be good friends. We should be talking with them, not merely sitting back and observing.

AP Trumps' new tariffs on China will kick in at 10 per cent but are set to rise to 25pc from January.

"If China counters this tariff increase – which I expect they will – and then the US does some more, then before you know it we could be captured in something that would be extremely harmful to our exporters and by then it would be too late for us to have any say."

Parker said he was planning a trip to Washington and Ottawa next month to put New Zealand's point of view to small groups of ministers from "like-minded countries".

The Government was also "participating at all levels in international negotiations" to protect and improve the World Trade Organisation, he said.

"Right now our top negotiator is on a plane to Geneva for a meeting on WTO reforms and the US-China tariff situation will be discussed there.

"Dialogue is the only way that there is to resolve these issues," he said.

ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard was concerned by the possible fall out for New Zealand agricultural goods from the trade war.

China had retaliated against US tariffs by targeting US agricultural goods which the US had then subsidised and that could have a negative effect on prices, she said.

Other countries could then follow with subsidies and they could become "baked in" and then hard to unwind, she said.

"That would be a 'big picture concern'."

The Government was doing the right thing supporting free trade agreements, Beard said.

"The fact is countries are all lining up to visit each other. Some of those big countries have trade delegations coming in every other week, so it is quite a competitive field, and our politicians have got to keep getting on planes."

Infometrics economist Brad Olsen said a trade war between the US and China would possibly boost New Zealand's exports to China – and "potentially" the US – in the short term, as they looked for other suppliers of goods.

"However, this short-term boost masks a period of misery over the medium-term where reduced global demand weighs heavily on the New Zealand economy and drives exports down. Not even lower fuel prices would soften the blow for New Zealand, with a weaker New Zealand dollar and slower growth in real disposable income."