Politicians will not dismantle the single market, but there is a lot they can do to meddle: doling out state aids, encouraging mergers and alliances to create national or European "champions", and taking an aggressive stance on foreign imports through things like anti-dumping complaints.

ECONOMIST: European politics

Governments often impose anti-dumping duties on foreign products to right this terrible wrong.

ECONOMIST: Treacherous trade

In effect, anti-dumping measures encourage domestic and foreign producers to collude to raise prices.

ECONOMIST: Unfair protection

America continued to give ground by agreeing to discuss anti-dumping the practice of stopping foreign imports which are allegedly being sold at less than the cost of their production.

ECONOMIST: The end of the beginning | The

Oh and by the way, the United States will not budge on its protection for textiles and on its use of anti-dumping laws, and the European Union wants to carry on keeping out foreign farm products.

ECONOMIST: The real losers