LIKE Kaiser Wilhelm's army in the summer of 1914, the United
States Trade Representative's office is rumbling inexorably down
the track to war: it seems too late to stop the conflict that
looms. Immediately after America filed its complaint to the
World Trade Organisation (WTO) at the end of May about European
subsidies to Airbus, the European Union (EU) followed with a
counter complaint about federal and state subsidies to Boeing in
America. It seems that the Europeans too had been mobilising as
the storm clouds gathered last autumn. The Americans accuse
Airbus of receiving subsidies worth $17 billion in launch loans
alone over the past 35 years. The Europeans counter that Boeing
has enjoyed R&D subsidies worth $23 billion in the past 13
years.  The current 30-day pause in proceedings is merely an
opening salvo, as each side squabbles about the membership of
the panels that will review the respective claims. The European
side likes to characterise the postponement of the launch of a
new Airbus model (the A35