Trade wars - should you pick a side?

Protect your investments or do nothing?

For a number of months now, the world's largest survey of fund managers has observed that when asked for their greatest financial market fear, the most cited response has been a 'trade war'.

There is a significant slug of rationality for this. The World Bank has noted, over the 2017-19 period, the predicted proportional contribution to global real GDP stands at 35.2% from China and 17.9% from the US.  Rhetorical flourishes have spilled over into heightened, new tariffs between two countries that directly account for more than 50% of global growth at-the-margin (and likely an even-higher proportion indirectly), which has naturally induced concern.  Can China survive the threat of a trade war with the US? So, has the time come for investors to pick a side? When looking t...