BEIJING—China announced a list of U.S. goods including pork, apples and steel pipe it said Friday may be hit with higher import duties in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hike on steel and aluminum.

The Commerce Ministry called on Washington to negotiate a settlement as soon as possible but set no deadline.

A ministry statement said the higher U.S. tariffs “seriously undermine” the global trading system.

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“The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to resolve the concerns of the Chinese side as soon as possible,” the ministry said. It appealed for dialogue “to avoid damage to overall Chinese-U.S. co-operation.”

Goods targeted for possible higher Chinese tariffs include wine, apples and ethanol, which would hit agricultural areas where voters supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The ministry said China bought about $1 billion worth of those goods last year. They would be hit with a 15 per cent tariff increase, mirroring the U.S. duty hike of 15 per cent on aluminum.

A second group of products targeted for a possible 25 per cent tariff, mirroring the higher American charge on steel, includes pork and aluminum scrap, according to the ministry.

On Thursday, China’s ambassador to the U.S. warned Trump the Asian nation would return fire on tariffs the U.S. president announced, saying the American middle class would pay the price.

“We don’t want a trade war,” Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a video posted to the embassy’s Facebook page. “But we are not afraid of it.”

The president instructed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to levy tariffs on at least $50 billion (U.S.) of Chinese imports, citing allegations China violates U.S. intellectual property. Trump signed an executive memo issuing the instructions on Thursday at the White House. Within 15 days, USTR will come up with a proposed list of products that will face higher tariffs.

Cui said accusations of intellectual property violations are “groundless” and his country “will certainly fight back and retaliate. If people want to play tough, we will play tough with them and see who will last longer. ”

Cui said Trump’s trade sanctions against China make “no economic sense” because the escalating conflict “will affect the daily life of American middle-class people, the balance sheet of American companies and the indexes of the financial market.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington later echoed Cui’s comments in a written statement, calling Trump’s tariffs “self-defeating.”

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“China does not want a trade war with anyone. But China is not afraid of and will not recoil from a trade war,” the embassy said in a statement sent to reporters. “If a trade-war were initiated by the U.S., China would fight to the end to defend its own legitimate interests with all necessary measures.”

With files from Bloomberg

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