Compared with this row, other trade niggles such as those over genetically modified maize or hormones in beef are piffling.

ECONOMIST: That awkward relationship

But the violence in Yangon exposed the enormous credibility gap between ASEAN's grandiose talk and its piffling achievements.

ECONOMIST: Asia.view: Bad neighbour | The

In the national election last year, militant religious parties were thrashed, dropping from 11 percent of the vote to a piffling 2 percent.

CNN: Commentary: Obama anti-terror plan could be doomed to fail

Small, targeted tax reliefs may strike voters as a piffling response.

ECONOMIST: The politics of a shrinking economy

The elections were for seats on district councils, but few of the voters were concerned with the piffling powers that these councils actually have (such matters as rubbish collection).

ECONOMIST: A taste for democracy | The

One way to get on a Englishman's wick is to offer a piffling 560 pence per share for the London Stock Exchange, the primary stock exchange in the U.K. and the largest in Europe.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The Teutonic taxpayer is much much more concerned about the vast potential cost of bailing out the entire Spanish banking sector than the relatively piffling sums involved in the argument between a real terms freeze and a 5% rise in the EU budget.

BBC: German chancellor Angela Merkel

This is a piffling sum.

ECONOMIST: The electoral system