The US is due to start imposing tariffs on Friday on $34bn of imports from China and Beijing is set to target an equal amount as the nascent trade war between the two largest economies continues to build. Add that to the pile of tariffs and counter-tariffs growing across the Atlantic and North America, and the value of trade covered by the economic wars that President Donald Trump has launched will race through the $100bn mark by the end of this week.
But that’s just the beginning.
Before long Mr Trump’s trade wars could easily surge through the trillion-dollar mark. That is likely to be economically consequential for both the US and the world. It would be equivalent to a quarter or more of the US’s $3.9tn total trade with the world last year and cover at least 6 per cent of global merchandise trade (worth $17.5tn in 2017, according to the World Trade Organization).