Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that imposing more U.S. tariffs against China is a bad idea, and he has warned President Donald Trump's administration about the problem.

Paul, a leading libertarian-conservative, said the tariffs, which were increased by Trump last week as part of his pressure campaign against China in trade negotiations, may in effect nullify benefits U.S. companies have received from the administration's recent tax cuts.

Paul told ABC, "I know of a big, prominent company in Kentucky that said the tax cuts significantly helped them, but that the tariffs are almost equal in punishing them. I've talked to the administration about this. I said great benefits of the tax cuts, which... [generated] low unemployment and incredible economic growth, could be erased by this tariff war."

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Paul also said "The president is playing a negotiating battle with the Chinese and I think he thinks at this point he can't back out...but I still have advised the administration: Get this [a trade deal] done because the longer we're involved in a tariff battle or a trade war, the better chance there is we could actually enter into a recession because of it."

On Friday, the Trump administration began the process of increasing tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent. U.S. officials said the Chinese negotiators have been reversing themselves on commitments made in earlier trade talks. Beijing has retaliated against previous U.S. tariff increases. Rand and other legislators have warned that a damaging trade war is in prospect.

The latest round of negotiations broke down Friday with no deal.