With the 25-percent additional tariffs on Chinese products worth 34 billion US dollars taking effect on Friday, the United States has ignited the largest trade war in economic history, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

The ministry called the US move a "textbook trade hegemony", which is set to bring damage, including harming the global production chain and value chain, setting back global recovery, triggering market turmoil, and hurting innocent companies, consumers and US enterprises and ordinary people.

China has promised not to fire the first shot of the trade war, the ministry noted, adding that to safeguard the interests of the country and its people, China has to take necessary countermeasures.

"We will inform the World Trade Organization in time and work with other countries to safeguard the free trade and the multilateral system," the statement read.

The ministry reiterated that China will continue to take solid reform and opening-up steps, protect entrepreneurship and intellectual property rights, and provide a good environment for foreign invested companies in China.

"We will continue evaluating the losses of affected companies and take helpful measures."

（Source:people.cn）