(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)
By James Saft
April 5 (Reuters) - As a symbol of the year thus far and a taste of things to come you could not do much better than China's imposition of tariffs on European and some Asian steel.
China announced last week that new "anti-dumping" tariffs ranging from 14 to 46 percent would apply to steel producers from the European Union, Japan and South Korea, alleging that it suffers "substantial damage" from unfair trade.
This bit of tit-for-tattery follows tariffs imposed this year on various types of Chinese steel by the EU and the U.S.
China reserved the highest new tariff for a specialized kind of steel made in Britain by Tata Steel, which itself touched off something approaching a panic when it said it will effectively abandon its operations there, threatening a chain of production sustaining tens of thousands of jobs.
The cross-currents here are complex and mostly malign, as players in China, Europe and the U.S. seem increasingly willing to risk a trade war amid mounting economic and especially political pressures.
This apparent sea-change in the global attitude towards trade, and indeed globalization, poses a set of risks not just for the jobs and industries affected, but for economic growth and asset values.
"If this is not a trade war, I don't know what is," Gareth Stace, director of industry group UK Steel told Britain's Daily Telegraph.
"We're literally drowning in a flood of Chinese imports globally. We're certainly not seeing a flood of European steel into China."
China is widely accused by its trade competitors of selling its steel abroad for less than the prices it imposes in its home market, a practice called dumping. China has massively built up its steel industry, which now has nearly a 50 percent global market share, and is seeking to shelter the sector from the full impact of its strategy of trying to build up domestic consumer consumption rather than fixed investment in steel-hungry projects like highways and factories.
That means slowing growth and less demand for commodity-like products like steel at home, threatening Chinese jobs.
AND HERE COMES TRUMP
China, which has a well-deserved reputation for less than full compliance with its trade agreements, might well feel threatened by the huge change of tone in the U.S. national conversation about trade.
That the U.S. imposed much higher tariffs on Chinese steel in March than Europe was willing to venture in January comes as no surprise given the noises coming from presidential candidates on the subject.