**In this week’s Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ podcast, Bruegel director Guntram Wolff hosts a discussion with Bruegel fellows Alicia García-Herrero and André Sapir on where Europe will position itself between the two major trading powers of China and the United States if relations continue to cool.**

Bruegel director Guntram Wolff begins his regular Director’s Cut of ‘The Sound of Economics’ podcast with a broad assessment of the recent fomentation of global trade tension, joined in conversation by Bruegel fellows Alicia García-Herrero and André Sapir.

Amid escalating trade tensions, Europe is still working out where it stands between China and the United States. Reprieved – for now at least – of inclusion in the US tariff on steel and aluminium imports, the EU remains regretful of the prospect of global trade war.

China, and Asia more broadly, faces a range of difficulties in the event of a tariff tit-for-tat. Some countries will have to choose where they align themselves; other countries will not have the option to choose.

For a more in-depth look at global trade balances, consider [Nicolas Moës recent Bruegel blog post](http://bruegel.org/2018/02/is-it-a-transatlantic-transpacific-or-eurasian-global-economy/) data on bilateral trade, services, investment and protectionism between Asia, Europe and the US in recent years.

Meanwhile, Francesco Chiacchio has written [another blog post](http://bruegel.org/2018/03/which-sectors-would-be-most-vulnerable-to-eu-us-trade-war/) identifying which sectors would be most vulnerable to any deterioration in relations between the EU and the US.