The Doha round of world trade talks was already tottering before Hurricane Katrina smashed through the Mississippi river ports that handle half America’s grain exports. Now its fragile foundations look shakier than ever.

On Wednesday Rob Portman, US trade representative, is due to meet Peter Mandelson, his European Union counterpart, in Washington to seek a common view on farm trade. Meanwhile, the Talks on agricultural liberalisation, the centrepiece of the Doha round, restarted on Tuesday at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. Time is short. Next year the administration of President George W. Bush and the US Congress will hammer out a farm bill that will set a framework for the next five years of US agricultural spending from 2007. Before that, in December, the Doha round comes to a head at a ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.