The Olympics are drawing to a climax and the US presidential election is three months away: conditions are perfect for an outbreak of wrong-headed economic nationalism.
There is fierce competition for the title of most hilarious inability to appreciate that the modern global economy involves complex, multinational supply chains. But a leading contender must be the fury in the US Congress that the American Olympic team’s uniforms were stitched in China, ignoring the fact that the most value-added parts of the production process – design, marketing, research – take place in the US.
Meanwhile, a recent flurry of legal activity in the form of unilateral blocks on imports, and of litigation at the World Trade Organisation, might persuade a casual observer that there is a trade war under way.