The world trade talks that were supposed to relieve poverty and improve economic growth collapsed into indefinite suspension on Monday, after nearly five years of protracted wrangling.

A last-ditch meeting in Geneva of the six core “Doha round” negotiators – India, Brazil, the US, EU, Japan and Australia – broke up amid recriminations over irreconcilable differences about farm liberalisation. The US continued to argue for big cuts in farm import tariffs to open up markets for its farmers, a demand fiercely rejected by the European Union, Japan and India, which said America had first to go further in offering to cut agricultural subsidies.