This paper looks at three related, controversial, and very current topics in the agricultural trade policy of the United States -- trade wars, export subsidies, and international grain markets. The possible head-on collision of the United States and the Community over these three matters provides us with a rare opportunity to examine the economic aspects of these issues as they actually unfold. My goal in the pages that follow is to illuminate some basic economics of these highly political issues in a non-technical but sensible way.