These are troubled times for globalisation. James Robinson, the former chief executive of American Express and prominent business cheerleader during the last round of global trade negotiations, warned last week that the world was on the verge of "a descent into economic madness". Liberalisation, he said, was "stuck". The US and the European Union, the world's two biggest economies, have called in the lawyers over a fight about subsidies to Airbus and Boeing, the aircraft manufacturers. Both have also turned on China, the cheapest mass manufacturer on earth, for having the temerity to export low-priced clothes to them. The Doha round of multilateral liberalisation talks is behind schedule and in trouble. Prospects for trade seem bleak.

But are they? In practice, according to many trade officials, experts and practitioners, the World Trade Organisation system has so far done a good job of holding protectionist sentiment in check. Some warn that the system will start to give way, or at least that further liberalisation is in jeopardy. Yet, in spite of the stress induced by rapid change in the global economy, there is little sign that the gains from previous advances are being lost.