The trade war with China shows no signs of slacking off and Donald Trump is preparing to up the ante.

According to Reuters, Trump is likely to announce $200 billion more in tariffs on goods imported from China - perhaps as soon as Monday.

The tariff level will probably be about 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter. This is below the 25 percent the administration said it was considering for this possible round of tariffs.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The upcoming tariffs will be on a list of items that included $200 billion worth of internet technology products and other electronics, printed circuit boards and consumer goods including Chinese seafood, furniture and lighting products, tires, chemicals, plastics, bicycles and car seats for babies. It was unclear if the administration will exempt any of the products that were on the list, which was announced in July.

On Friday, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump “has been clear that he and his administration will continue to take action to address China’s unfair trade practices. We encourage China to address the long-standing concerns raised by the Unites States.”

Trump had already directed aides to proceed with tariffs, despite Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s attempts to restart trade talks with China.

One observer in the business sector said the administration may have reduced its planned tariff level after hearing public comments, hoping companies would not immediately hike prices for consumer goods to pass along the costs. Still, the additional tariffs could complicate trade talks with China expected later this month.

If the Chinese don't know we're serious by now, it's hard to see if they will ever will. And that rasies the question; will the tariffs eventually become self-defeating?

Tariffs as a negotiating ploy I get. But in the case of China, they seem perfectly willing to match our gambits move for move. This makes negotiating virtually useless as we endure an endless cycle of trying to inflict damage on the Chinese economy.

They aren't as big as we are, but they're plenty big as it is. They, too, can apparently absorb these losses with little harm to their economy. Since they are a command economy, they can shift resources easily - more easily than we can.

Eventually, someone is going to have to blink or the cumulative damage to our economy could start costing jobs and negatively impact our GDP.