What do felt hats, flamethrowers, soybeans, and aluminum all have in common? They're all potential targets for new tariffs in the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China.

For some time, the US has been trending towards freer and more open trade, culminating the North American Free Trade Agreement and efforts to finalize the Trans‑Pacific Partnership. But that trend may have come to an abrupt halt under an administration that has famously said, "Trade wars are good and easy to win."

Here to explain whether or not we're in a trade war already, what that means for the US and China, and what US policy makers should do going forward, are three experts in the field:

• Caroline Baum, regular contributor to Market Watch
• Dan Griswold, and Don Boudreaux, co-directors of the Mercatus Center's Program on the American Economy and Globalization

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