Trump denies trade war with China in tweet, says ‘that war was lost many years ago’

“Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue,” Donald Trump tweeted.

US 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 US imports in retaliation for similar duties levied by the White House one day earlier.

US President Donald Trump holds his signed memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington on March 22, 2018. (Reuters File Photo)

“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.

“Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue”, he added.