Trade wars are never won, can we avert one now?

History tells us that those starting trade wars never win. Trade wars have mostly resulted in losses all round. The dictionary describes a trade war as "an economic conflict in which countries impose import restrictions on each other in order to harm each other's trade".

But US President Donald Trump recently said: "Trade wars are easy to win." History tells a different story and also shows how a trade war between two main protagonists such as the United States and China can quickly become "a world war" by having impacts in numbers of ways on many other parts of the globe.

The World Trade Organization's job is to encourage free trade between countries. Can it act as a firm enough arbiter to prevent a trade war? It might be our only hope.