U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Latvia's President Raimonds Vejonis, Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump denied on Wednesday that the United States was in a trade war with China, hours after Beijing slapped tariffs on a list of U.S. imports in retaliation for similar duties levied by the White House one day earlier.

“We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

(Corrects typing error in headline)