Some poor countries' politicians seemed to revel in the collapse of the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meeting on September 14th. The Philippine trade minister, for instance, told Reuters news agency that he was "elated" by it. Tanzania's delegate claimed to be "very happy" that poor countries had stood up to rich-country "manipulation". But others were upset and shocked. According to one observer, the trade minister of Bangladesh had tears in his eyes. "I'm really disappointed," he is reported to have said. "This is the worst thing we poor countries could have done to ourselves." Disappointment is the right reaction. For the Doha round of trade talks run by the WTO was geared specifically to help poor countries. They will be the biggest victims if the talks cannot be revived, and there seems to be scant prospect of that. The negotiations have not been officially abandoned. Diplomats pledged to continue talking in Geneva, the WTO'S headquarters, with a formal meeting to be held no later than December 15th. But momentum has clearly been lost. No one now expects the round to finish by its original deadline of December 31st 2004. Some trade officials privately wonder whether it will ever finish, or whether Cancun's collapse―coming less than four years after the Seattle ministerial meeting broke down in December 1999―marks the end of the WTO as an effective negotiating forum.
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