Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a 2020 presidential candidate, said Thursday that President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods don't deserve any credit for bringing Beijing to the negotiating table.

Hickenlooper, one of the nearly two dozen Democrats vying for the chance to unseat Trump in the 2020 election, said that China had been willing to negotiate before Trump resorted to slapping import duties on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods.

"They were at the table," Hickenlooper said of China on CNBC's "Closing Bell."

"They were ready to negotiate, and there was a give-and-take," Hickenlooper added, while noting that "maybe we weren't going as fast we wanted."

Rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China, long waged behind closed doors, appeared to boil over in mid-May, with both sides digging in their heels on points of disagreement. Trump claimed Thursday that China "broke the deal," though he also said that country "would love to make a deal" with the U.S.

Trump, who has long argued that the U.S. will ultimately win a trade war with China, said the recently hiked tariffs on Chinese goods "are having a devastating effect on China."