Individual examples can seem trivial new minimum prices for backpacks and prams in Argentina, for example, or new tariffs on lawn-mower-blades in South Africa but the cumulative impact is significant.

ECONOMIST: Trade

By the 17th century, the walls of the court were painted with a noisome cocktail of ox-blood, ox-gall, lamp black and a bucket of urine: soon afterwards, tennis became unfashionable and all but disappeared to be revived as a modified, open-air sport, in the wake of the invention of the lawn-mower, by Major Wingfield in the 1870s.

ECONOMIST: History of the net

As for safety, it's undeniable that in a nose-to-nose with a heavier vehicle say, a riding lawn mower the iQ is severely disadvantaged.

WSJ: 2012 Scion iQ Review: Slow, Whiny, Tiny��but Great to Park | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil

In 1989 Dow's materials-engineering center beat out GE for the chance to build, using plastics, a riding lawn mower for John Deere.

FORBES: Chemical transformation

In 1989 Dow's materials-engineering center beat out General Electric for the chance to build, using plastics, a riding lawn mower for John Deere.

FORBES: Chemical Transformation