President Donald Trump has declared the United States is "right were we want to be with China", adding that Beijing "broke the deal with us" and then sought to renegotiate.
"We will be taking in tens of billions of dollars in tariffs from China. Buyers of product can make it themselves in the USA (ideal), or buy it from non-tariffed countries," Trump posted on Twitter on Sunday.
"We will then spend (match or better) the money that China may no longer be spending with our great patriot farmers (agriculture), which is a small percentage of total tariffs received, and distribute the food to starving people in nations around the world!"
The trade war between the world's top two economies escalated on Friday, with the US hiking tariffs on $US200 billion ($A286 billion) worth of Chinese goods.
Trump has insisted that China has picked up the tab for his tariff campaign, not American consumers.
But prices are up on a host of products as diverse as bicycles, sewing machines and pet supplies, and government data shows US consumers have already had to pay more since the first round of tariffs kicked in last year.
Australian Associated Press
