The Doha trade round has collapsed in a welter of acrimony with much finger-pointing between the world's two richest trading blocs, the US and the EU.
The stumbling block was farm subsidies, with the Europeans and the Americans accusing each other of not going far enough in cutting back support for their respective farmer communities. So western farmers will be one group that will be pleased that Doha has gone off the rails.
What is so extraordinary about the whole affair is the disproportionate influence that agriculture holds politically in the west despite its minuscule economic importance.
As the World Bank puts it: "It is ironic that agricultural policy is so contentious, given its small and declining importance in the global economy."
Agriculture's share of global GDP has fallen from one-tenth in the 1960s to about 1/30th today. In the developed world, the sector accounts for only 1.8% of GDP and only a little more as a percentage of the labour force.
But if agriculture matters less and less for the rich countries it matters a great deal for the poor countries, because agriculture still plays a considerable role in the developing world. The World Bank again:
Their gains from global agricultural liberalisation represent almost two-thirds of their total potential gains, which compares with just one-quarter from textiles and clothing and one-ninth from other merchandise liberalisation.
So the promise of Doha, called the development round, has gone unfulfilled and Africa stands to lose the most. The danger for African countries, as NGOs see it, is that the EU will drive hard bargains in regional trade agreements - the so-called economic partnership agreements (EPAs), the EU wants to sign with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to replace previous trade arrangements.
Christian Aid did not mince its words about the west's inability to deliver on the promise of Doha, and rightly so.
"Poor countries desperately needed a fair trade deal so that they could grow out of poverty and not rely on hand outs," said Claire Melamed of Christian Aid. "This tawdry squabbling at the rich world's high table has now put paid to that. It is a disgraceful outcome of which leaders of the European Union and America should be ashamed."
