AMERICA’S president reckons trade wars are easy to win—so easy that he has started several. This year Donald Trump has applied new tariffs on imports of solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminium. The most recent batch, covering $32bn of imports from China, takes the total of newly taxed imports to $89bn. More are on the way. If Mr Trump carries out all of his threats, within months as much as 13% of American imports could be affected.

America’s trading partners have not been sitting still. The United States already faces formal disputes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for its duties on solar panels and washing machines. Its tariffs on metals have generated official opprobrium from eight of its trading partners, including the EU, China, Russia and Norway, who have launched official WTO disputes too. More immediately, trading partners are retaliating with tariffs of their own, levied on $79bn of American exports.

For now, this particular spat shows few signs of escalation. On July 16th the United States Trade Representative launched five formal disputes against the retaliatory tariffs. America’s conflict with China, however, is more likely to spiral. If Mr Trump were to approve tariffs on a new tranche of Chinese imports, worth $194bn in 2017, the Chinese have said that they would hit back—but have not revealed how. Trade wars fought with tariffs are ugly enough. Those that include other forms of pressure could get uglier still.

Sources: Census Bureau; Peterson Institute for International Economics; Squire Patton Boggs; WTO; The Economist