The last great era of globalisation was brought to an end by an assassin's bullet in Sarajevo in 1914. Almost a century on, the current fashion for free trade faces a hail of toy trains and toothpaste. American consumers have a curious, and uneasy, relationship with China: US jobs get outsourced to Chinese factories but, then again, the latter do churn out decent gizmos at low prices.

Now the second half of that equation is being undermined. Revelations about Chinese food products laced with chemicals follow earlier scandals involving tainted toothpaste and lead-painted Thomas the Tank Engines. An estimated 60 per cent of all recalls in the US in 2007 have involved Chinese goods.