BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- As U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats ratchet up trade tensions with China, academics and officials say the protectionist move, which seeks to bypass the World Trade Organization (WTO), is a "big mistake".

"These tariffs that have targeted China confirm that the Trump administration intends to bypass the WTO's dispute settlement body and unilaterally rely on U.S. law alone regarding the ongoing trade dispute with China. That is a big mistake," Jon R. Taylor, a political science professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, said.

WTO rules and regulations were established to provide a global mechanism to resolve trade disputes, he said.

"If the U.S. follows through on these tariffs, so will China," he warned. "The ball is in the U.S. court."

Trump on Thursday threatened to slap tariffs on 100 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China.

It was the latest protectionist trade action against China. Earlier this week, the U.S. Trade Representative proposed to impose an additional 25 percent tariff on 50 billion dollars of imports from China, which has drawn strong opposition from business groups.

China on Wednesday unveiled a list of products worth 50 billion dollars imported from the United States that will be subject to higher tariffs and plans to take relevant U.S. practices to the WTO trade dispute settlement system.

Canadian international business expert Ian Lee called the trade tensions between the United States and China more than bilateral -- part of a broader issue involving Trump challenging the international trading system.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called China a pillar of the multilateral system, said trade wars are always bad for those involved and for the international economy as a whole. "We need to have international cooperation," he emphasized.

The international framework that governs global trade is of extreme importance with the WTO at its center, he said, adding, "Free trade is a very important contributor to global prosperity."

Guterres said wherever there is a problem, there must be dialogue and serious discussions to address it.

"I am a strong believer in multilateralism ... to address global problems... Global problems need to have global answers, and global answers can only be implemented through multilateral frameworks," he said.

Martin Wansleben, chief executive of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, suggested direct talks among the parties involved to work on common trade rules within the WTO for maintaining a good and fair world trade.

Imposing new tariffs is "an economic dead end," he said. Growth and welfare are based on cooperation.

"The economies of China and the United States have been intertwined heavily for a long time, so it's impossible to introduce any protective trade measures without hurting the two economies or the world economy," Wansleben said.