This paper is partly devoted to defining economic warfare and its position in the system of international relations. The role of economic warfare in shaping internal and external policies of s country is described in selected examples using the historical-logical method. The article provides a typology of the elements of trade warfare. Based on the analysis of selected determinants, the latest facts of trade warfare after the year 2015 are analysed. The treatise concludes: a trade war in one sector of the economy may spread into other sectors, whereas economic warfare is a priori waged against an economy.