US President Donald Trump on Thursday increased imports tariffs against Chinese products worth about 60 billion US dollars. The move follows limits placed on Chinese investment in high-tech industries. A senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Nicholas Lardy, says trade protectionism will do no good for the US economy, but will instead hurt the interests of American consumers.

NICHOLAS LARDY, SENIOR FELLOW PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS "I think there is no doubt it will be negative, you can't gain from imposing tariffs, almost impossible. Consumers will pay a lot more. Take some of the products for example, if you take a look at consumer electronics, the products that are coming from China in many cases have not been produced in the United States for many years. And the production of these products will not come back to the United States in response to tariffs."

Lardy says Trump's plan will lead to a rise in American commodity prices, while dragging on the economic growth of the United States. On Friday, China's Ministry of Commerce responded to the latest bilateral trade frictions, saying the country will take all legal measures to protect its own interests. Beijing also decided to slap higher import duties on several US agriculture products.