Two names have been invoked more than any others during the current outburst of fear about protectionism: Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot, the US lawmakers whose eponymous 1930 bill raised national trade tariffs across the board.

Ferdinand de Mateo, Mexico’s World Trade Organisation ambassador, even brandished pictures of the pair at recent WTO talks. But those anxiously watching to see their modern equivalents emerge may be looking in the wrong place. Trade experts say that deals put in place since the 1930s have prevented traditional naked protectionism such as wholesale raising of tariffs.