The Trump administration said it would impose steel and aluminum tariffs on its allies, Canada, Mexico and the EU countries after exemptions expired on last Friday, the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced on last Thursday, provoking criticism from the US’s allies. 

Leaders from affected nations said they would also impose tit-for-tat tariffs on US imports, but has yet to outline them. How will the situation develop? 

CGTN's World Insight speaks to leading professors and experts in the issues. Liu Baocheng, the dean of the center for International Business Ethics from the University of International Business and Economics, Iain Begg, a professor at the European Institute and co-director at the Dahrendorf Forum, London School of Economics and Political Science and Marc Ross, co-founder and partner of Caracal Strategies, all shared their views. 

"I think Canada is interested in showing a little bit restrain, Prime Minister Trudeau said that their tariffs will not go into place until July 1st," said Ross, implying that there is still one month for some changes happen. 

Professor Begg also believes the trade war won't happen. He says this is just an attempt by America to see what will happen because the steel and aluminum industries are relatively small not significant part of the US economy. 

"The number of jobs in the United States in the steel and aluminum of industries is about 0.1 percent of total US employment.  The US created more jobs overall in one month than in the total of steel and aluminum industries. So, the moment was talking about a relatively small not a significant part of the US economy," said Begg.  Only if it is to shift into something a bit more significant, that's when we need to worry about a tit for tat becoming escalation into a significant trade war. 

Besides this, the Europeans also don't want a trade war happens. Begg said, “The overriding wish of Europeans will wait to stop in its tracks, rather than to allow it to escalate." However, Begg added, "the great difficulty is Trump, a very difficult person to stop." Professor Liu said that now China is not the only one on the list, "Therefore, China is really able to have at least theoretically to build more allies because we now face a thing that comes from one source." 

Professor Liu concluded with America is sending a signal to the world, that is "America first is not only American interests first, it's also American rule first, Trump is trying to discard the multilateral trading system."

World Insight with Tian Wei is a 45-minute global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15 p.m. BJT (1415GMT), with rebroadcasts at 4:15 a.m. BJT (2015GMT).