President Trump pushed forward with a two-pronged trade offensive this week, enacting tariffs on imported aluminum and steel on Friday, a day after announcing levies on up to $60 billion in Chinese goods. The target of both actions is China, a country that Mr. Trump has called “an economic enemy” of the United States.

For now, the administration has given exemptions from the first set of tariffs to multiple nations, making it clear that the main point is to curb the influx of cheap Chinese metals.

Beijing’s initial response has been muted, setting the stage for what could be a methodical escalation of retaliatory measures. The Chinese government announced Friday that it planned to impose tariffs on just $3 billion in American products, including fruit, pork, wine, seamless steel pipes and more than 100 other goods. Missing were vulnerable prey like aircraft and soybeans, which experts say may come next if tensions continue to build.

There’s clearly uncertainty about how the tariffs will play out. Here’s what we do know.

What’s directly at stake?

Markets around the world tumbled on the news of the new tariff package, but for now, the panic seems premature. Sixty billion sounds like a big number, but the reality is that the measures would barely dent the $11 trillion Chinese economy. And the Chinese retaliation for the aluminum and steel tariffs, at least initially, is even milder.