Anthony Rayner: A very public game of chicken

Rhetorical hyperbole, muddy motives and complex global supply chains have made it difficult to work out exactly what is going on behind the ‘trade war' headlines, but the potential for significant protectionism between the world's two largest economies - and others - should not be ignored. What do we know? So far, the 25% tariff on $50bn (£38bn) of imports from China announced by the US, followed by retaliation from China, could be best described as a trade skirmish, rather than anything more significant. There have, however, been threats of quite a lot more from the US - and key to u...