The US tariffs on Chinese products will damage the global economy. The most immediate threat is of disruption to a global economy which is enjoying its most sustained synchronised recovery since the international financial crisis. Unilateral tariff imposition is not merely against the interestof any one country but against the interests of all states.

Just the threat of tariffs led to hundreds of billions of dollar losses for investors – even before damaging tariffs were imposed. German companies fear they could suffer considerable collateral damage because machines and cars made by their subsidiaries in China and exported to the US could end up being hit just as hard as Chinese products.

But even greater than the immediate damage to the world economy is the strategic threat. By definition, international trade is multinational, and must, therefore, have mutually agreed rules.

If any one country is allowed to set the rules, or to act outside a mutually agreed framework, it would inevitably manipulate the situation to its own advantage. Any US action outside the World Trade Organisation therefore strategically threatens the multilateral trade framework on which every economy’s prosperity depends. While the US tariffs will damage the global economy, they will not reduce the US trade deficit.