LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26 -- The growing tariff tensions are "a futile battle" with American retailers and consumers as the losers, Rick Helfenbein, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, told Xinhua on Monday.

"American retailers are already struggling. This will put the nail in their coffin. As tariffs go up, prices go up; as prices go up, sales go down; as sales go down, jobs are lost. What do you think that will do to our economy? That's the reality," he said.

The U.S. government announced on Aug. 15 that it will impose additional tariffs of 10 percent on Chinese goods worth about 300 billion U.S. dollars, effective on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15, respectively, in two batches.

In response, Beijing announced its decision on Friday to impose additional tariffs on U.S. imports worth about 75 billion dollars. Washington then vowed to retaliate with further tariffs later in the day, fueling fears of economic consequences that would spin out of control.

"It's sheer insanity!" Helfenbein said, considering "the U.S. apparel and footwear industries already pay 51 percent of all duties collected in the United States" and "adding more duties on top of that" would simply be unbearable.

"The 75 percent tariffs on kid's backpacks are hitting the back-to-school market right now and that's already taking a heavy toll on retailers and consumers," he said. "Handbags and other accessories will be hit by the next tariff increase in six days."

These "ill-considered" tariffs, he said, were announced without taking into account that "China doesn't pay for tariffs, the American consumer does. That's Economics 101."

"Tariffs are nothing more than Trump's hidden tax on the very people who put him in office," Helfenbein said, comparing tariffs to "nuclear weapons" that will have "drastic and unpredictable consequences, not just on China's jobs and businesses, but on American jobs and businesses as well."

"China and the U.S. are so intertwined, it's not possible to hurt one without the other ... The retailers won't be making any money, because their profits are being ripped off by tariffs. It's not sustainable," he said.

Lashing out at the tariff strategy as a path towards "crashing the economy," the industrial leader warned that "we are in the lull before the storm. But Tranche Four Tariffs are coming into effect ... and when all the tariffs have taken full effect, we will all be feeling the pain and our economy will start to crater."

"It's a futile battle. Who's winning? Not the American consumer," Helfenbein said.