That didn't take too long.  The Chinese have responded to the Obama tyre tariff debacle by imposing a 36 per cent tariff on all imported nylon from the United States.  The tariff applies to nylon producers from other parts of the world but make no mistake about this: by introducing this tariff, Beijing wants to send a message to Washington that it can harm American producers just as much as American legislators can harm their Chinese counterparts.  The trouble is that each step along the way, producers and consumers from both China and the United States are harmed by the mindless tit-for-tat.

Another absurd twist in this political dispute is that this specific target - nylon - is a product that was developed and produced because of trade and collaboration between researchers and producers in two different countries, based in New York and London - hence "NyLon". 

We already know that trade is "no longer Us versus Them" in today's globalised world of trade and production, and how much better off we are because of this.  So why don't politicians just get out of the way?