Leaders of a number of top mergers and acquisitions practices in the United States remain sanguine about the global environment for deals, in spite of a recent report suggesting that a rise in protectionism is pushing dealmakers to look within national boundaries for opportunities.

While highlighting a busy first half of 2018, Mergermarket earlier this week concluded that an overall buoyant market was driven by domestic tie-ups, rather than cross-border transactions. The logic? A rise in tariffs, the threat of a trade war, and greater scrutiny over foreign acquisitions of American assets is creating uncertainty over cross-border deals.