But this isn't enough. And a sell-out at the WTO wouldn't play well in the fields at home. So the Indian delegation insisted that there be some protections for their farmers from the surge of imports that inevitably follow tariff cuts. The US and the EU proposed a threshold for support that was too high to be meaningful. India, backed by a range of other countries, held its ground.

So the talks collapsed.

This doesn't flag an end to US and EU hegemony. It merely confirms the arrival of more big players and the re-configuration of that hegemony. India, China and Brazil can no longer be taken for granted, and the EU and the US will need to negotiate accordingly. But it would be foolish to think that, as poorer cousins, the ascending powers might become a voice for the disenfranchised.

The most successful beggars in the international trade club have graduated - Oliver has become Fagin. After the elections, business will return to normal.

Trade talks are diplomacy's most rugged zombies, able to rise despite a thousand deaths. We can expect to be reading about the tentative resumption of talks next year. In the meantime, of course, farmers in developing countries will still be exposed to the inequities of the current system. Those inequities haven't worsened, but the failure of the talks are a small whoop. When the poor are so comprehensively pinioned by international economics, it's a slim victory that the screw hasn't turned further.

The author is the author of Stuffed And Starved

(China Daily via agencies August 5, 2008)