Updated, 10 a.m. Thursday: Revised to include comment from the Texas Farm Bureau.

WASHINGTON — Texas is once again stuck in the crossfire of President Donald Trump’s intensifying trade war with China.

The state's energy, chemical and tech sectors are among those bracing for new pain after the U.S. on Tuesday finalized tariffs on $16 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing on Wednesday finished touches on retaliatory levies to cover $16 billion in American products.

The duties go into effect Aug. 23.

Texas’ trade-heavy economy would feel the toll in both directions, even as the latest escalation pales in comparison to both Trump’s earlier protectionist trade actions and the mammoth tariffs the president has threatened to impose in the near future.

The Trump administration, for instance, ignored dire warnings from the semiconductor industry that the new duties would harm companies like Dallas-based Texas Instruments.

Beijing’s response, meanwhile, would double the amount of Texas exports subject to payback tariffs from trading partners across the globe. That exposure would now total several billion dollars, thanks to China’s aim at Lone Star State stalwarts like propane, polyethylene and butane.

The trend is inescapable, with average Texans facing the risks of job losses, increased prices and other economic disruptions.

“These numbers keep adding up,” said Michael Davis, who teaches economics at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. “It’s starting to feel more and more like there’s not going to be a resolution.”

These sort of trade tensions have become almost ho-hum in the Trump era.

The president has levied tariffs on washing machines, solar panels and metals, engulfing even America’s allies in the conflict. He’s slapped levies on tens of billions of dollars in Chinese goods. He’s threatened duties on automobile imports and even more action against Beijing.

Trump appears to be relishing the fight, making the case on Twitter in recent days that the “tariffs are working big time,” that “tariffs will make our country much richer than it is today” and that the U.S. is using the tariffs to “negotiate fair trade deals.”

“Other countries use Tariffs against [us], but when we use them, foolish people scream!” he tweeted.

Tariffs are working big time. Every country on earth wants to take wealth out of the U.S., always to our detriment. I say, as they come,Tax them. If they don’t want to be taxed, let them make or build the product in the U.S. In either event, it means jobs and great wealth..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

Latest U.S. tariffs

Many experts agree with Trump that China must be held to account for intellectual property theft and other unfair trade practices. Those experts also tend to agree that the president's strategy for doing so is misguided, with states like Texas suffering real harm as a result.

Texas consumers are seeing higher prices on washing machines and other appliances. Texas businesses are sweating their balance sheets over the added costs of more expensive steel and aluminum. Texas farmers and others are feeling the sting of retaliatory tariffs.

Just this week, the Texas Farm Bureau joined a campaign called Farmers for Free Trade to amplify the group's concerns about trade disruptions.

"International trade is a major driver of our Texas economy," Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening said.

President Donald Trump latest trade escalation with China would again put pressure on Texas businesses and consumers. (Al Drago/The New York Times) (A. Drago / The New York Times)

This latest tit-for-tat further tests Texas.

The U.S. tariffs on $16 billion in Chinese goods cover everything from chemicals to motorcycles to electronics. The Trump administration has taken pains to limit the impact on consumer goods, and it has twice recalibrated this set after hearing feedback from the business community.

But some pleas for mercy were ignored.

An industry group representing Texas Instruments and others said levies on semiconductors imported from China would backfire. That’s because most of those imports are actually semiconductors designed and made in the U.S. and then sent to China for final assembly.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, even led a bipartisan letter urging the Trump administration to spare those products from tariffs.

The Trump administration decided to slap duties on semiconductors anyway, causing Sessions on Wednesday to say he was “extremely disappointed” and for Semiconductor Industry Association president John Neuffer to say he was “puzzled.”

“Tariffs imposed on semiconductors imported from China will hurt America’s chipmakers, not China’s, and will do nothing to stop China’s problematic and discriminatory trade practices,” Neuffer said.

China's retaliation

China’s payback presents its own challenges.

Texas’ energy and chemical sectors are poised to bear a big chunk of that ante. The latest retaliatory tariffs would cover more than $3 billion in Texas exports, accounting for about 20 percent of the total hit, according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Such data is imperfect, since tariff codes can go into greater specificity than what’s tracked by the feds. But the implication is clear.

Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said that while he continues to have faith in Trump's negotiating skills, he hopes the conflict is short-lived. Because "Texas is on the front line of the dispute," he said, energy companies are being squeezed by tariffs on all sides.

“This type of headwind could result in lost market share for U.S. products,” he said. “Long-term, when you have lost market share, it results in fewer jobs, less investment and just a multitude of things you would like to avoid.”

The blow could’ve been worse, too.

Beijing ended up removing crude oil from this tariff list. That softened the impact in Texas, which accounts for a huge portion of the product sent to China. It also likely signals a desire by the Chinese to limit the pain felt in their own country, experts said.

But such a reprieve could be temporary.

China has jolted the markets by already threatening to include liquefied natural gas — another Texas biggie — on its next slate of retaliatory tariffs. And with no trade truce in sight, there's no reason why Beijing couldn't just add crude oil to a future list of duties.

“It is a larger part of the overall uncertainty in the climate for these companies,” said Josh Zive, a Washington-based trade attorney for Bracewell. “Right now, it’s difficult to see how this gets better before it gets worse.”