By the end of the week, after a meeting of trade ministers in Geneva, we should have a clearer indication of the future of the Doha development trade round. Fabled trade negotiator Bob Strauss famously said when an earlier trade round hung in the balance: “It’s time to cut bait and fish.” Lyndon Johnson, the former US president, was more graphic, once saying: “It’s time to either crap or get off the john.” It is decision time.

If you only read the headlines you would be forgiven for thinking the Doha development trade round had already failed. New deadlines have again been missed. Most of the media and many governments thought we would not launch the round in Doha.