President Donald Trump decided to pull the trigger on higher tariffs on $200bn of Chinese imports last Friday (with China retaliating today), and it is not just in Washington and Beijing where the implications are getting full attention.

Over the past 28 months since Mr Trump took office, economic diplomats and officials around the world have been struggling to manage trade relations with the US administration, and the escalation against China has raised fears that they could be next in line. 

Hawks inside and outside the administration are clearly in the ascent when it comes to trade policy. The fear is that the White House could expand its more aggressive stance to other targets, even at the expense of America’s closest allies and the multilateral trading system.