Going by the heated discussions of trade, currency and offshoring on the campaign trail, a casual observer might conclude that America’s place in the world economy hangs on the outcome of November’s presidential election.

Such a casual observation is likely to be wrong. While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney regularly hurl accusations at each other of selling out American workers to China, their actual policy differences are considerably less stark.

Though the eurozone crisis is probably the biggest threat to the world economy at present, it rarely gets a look-in during the exchanges between the candidates, which centre on the question of China. Mr Romney’s critique of Mr Obama is that he has “failed to take China to the mat” over Beijing’s policy of boosting exports by holding down the renminbi, nor addressed its many trade distortions. And he has chided Mr Obama for failing to sign new trade agreements to produce export opportunities for American workers.