T wo dangerous prejudices are threatening the critical meeting of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation that starts on Monday in Geneva.

The first is the view that the Doha round would bring small benefits – merely $50bn (€32bn, £25bn) to $70bn – in the industrial sector. After two decades of tariff cuts, the average industrial tariff is roughly 7 per cent for the 34 economies that account for 95 per cent of world trade and gross domestic product. No wonder additional cuts will not generate large economic gains.