While Trump fights over steel, aluminium, Silicon Valley braces for a real trade war

San Francisco

FORGET aluminium and steel. The real trade war may be waged in Silicon Valley. At first blush, President Donald Trump's aluminium and steel tariffs, imposed Thursday, have little to do with the cutting-edge technologies being built in the United States' innovation hub.

But some Silicon Valley executives fear that the protection of an old-school industry, one that accounts for just 2 per cent of global trade, could be a prelude for a much broader clash with China over the theft of technologies that are driving the future of the global economy.