It was meant to be the beginning of the end. For months, insiders at the World Trade Organisation (wto) in Geneva have argued that the release of a revised set of negotiating texts in the Doha round of trade talks was a necessary condition for a deal by the end of 2011. Necessary, perhaps, but hardly sufficient. The documents came out on April 21st but in a blunt assessment of the state of affairs, Pascal Lamy, the head of the wto, pointed to "a clear political gap" which "is not bridgeable". A deal this year is in "serious doubt", he suggested.
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