These are worrying times for the global trading system. The decision by the US to take the Boeing/Airbus subsidy case to litigation risks putting unbearable pressure on the World Trade Organisation's dispute settlement process. Meanwhile the US and the EU are locked in an increasingly angry dispute with China over a surge in textile imports. Nationalist and protectionist sentiment is on the rise, both in the US and much of the EU. It is time to lower the temperature.

Rows over trade are nothing new. Past disputes have come and gone, leaving the multilateral system intact. But the current disputes are both big in economic terms and politically explosive. There is a danger that they will spill over into broader trade relations and jeopardise progress on the Doha round of trade liberalisation. US and EU officials must take active steps to ensure this does not happen. There is too much at stake.