Another summer, another failed ministerial meeting in the Doha round. Nine sweat-soaked days of late-night negotiations, rumours, tempers lost and regained – and an unusual surge of optimism halfway through – in the end came to nothing.

It was always a gamble for Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation, to call a meeting of ministers when big negotiating gaps remained. But Mr Lamy has to decide by December whether he wants another four-year term at the head of the WTO and might well have thought it worth one last throw of the dice.