Britain’s finance minister warned that the world’s largest economy would be no exception to the catastrophic consequences of a full-blown trade war.

An escalating tit-for-tat trade dispute between the U.S. and several other major economies has rattled financial markets in recent days, as global investors fret over the wider economic fallout of President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

“We live in uncertain times because the old certainty for many decades has been that the United States was completely wedded to open markets and free trade,” Philip Hammond told India’s CNBC-TV 18 on Tuesday.

“I very much hope that we can avoid a full scale trade war (because) that would be a disaster for everyone, not least for the United States,” he added.