Speaking in an informal meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee, which oversees the negotiations in all topics, they were sobered by the chairs’ reports circulated on 21 April 2011. These reflected blockages in key areas of the talks but they also recorded how much has been achieved in almost 10 years of negotiations, which several speakers said should not be discarded.

Mr Lamy, who chairs the committee, said he will report back to the membership at the next meeting on 31 May . Several speakers agreed with him that three options will not work: “business as usual” (continuing as before), “stopping and starting from scratch”, which some speakers called “rebooting” — “since the issues blocking progress today will be the same ones on the agenda tomorrow,” Mr Lamy said — and “ ‘Drifting away’ by wishing the issue would simply disappear.”

The challenge is therefore to find a viable alternative to these three options, including the possibility of continuing to aim for all subjects to be agreed together or for some to be concluded faster than others, they said.

“We are not going to decide among these possibilities today,” Mr Lamy said. “In fact, I strongly suggest we do not rush into any judgment.” Several speakers agreed.

A number of ambassadors echoed Mr Lamy’s warning about the dangers as the membership faces the real prospect of the Doha Round failing, with the political “window of opportunity” that is seen to exist in 2011 rapidly closing. The costs would be the lost opportunity of boosting trade and development, increased protectionism and the erosion of faith in the trading system, they said.

“We need to be lucid and realistic,” Mr Lamy said. “Failure of the WTO to deliver on its legislative function, failure of the WTO to update the rules governing international trade — last updated in 1995 — by adapting them to the evolving needs of its members, failure of the WTO to harness our growing economic interdependence in a cooperative manner, risks a slow, silent weakening of the multilateral trading system in the longer term.

“And with this, a loss of interest by political leaders in many quarters, an erosion of the rules-based multilateral trading system, a creeping return to the law of the jungle,” he said.

Several ambassadors spoke of the need for straight talking, in private if necessary, in the search for a breakthrough. Several called for the process to continue to be transparent (information shared) and bottom-up (ideas coming from the members), praising the 21 April texts for following these principles. Some referred to a letter their ministers wrote to the Trade Negotiations Committee on their determination not to let the Doha Round fail .

Some have already been exploring compromise. The EU, reported on a compromise it has been discussing with some countries on “NAMA sectorals”. This is a proposed deal for free or almost-free trade among countries representing a large share of world trade, in specific sectors in the non-agricultural market access (NAMA) talks, whose span includes forestry and fisheries products as well as industrial goods. The EU referred specifically to chemicals, machinery and electronics.

Mr Lamy included a report on his consultations on this blockage in the 21 April texts. In his statement to the committee he described this as a “classic mercantilist issue: tariffs on industrial products, the bread and butter of WTO negotiations since their inception. (…)

“It is therefore disappointing that no ground for compromise has been found on the issue of industrial tariffs yet. But what is even more worrying for many of you is that this situation does not seem to result in too much discomfort in some quarters,” Mr Lamy went on.

“Perhaps because there is a sense that there is still time or that the situation will solve itself once the ‘political environment’ is right. Or perhaps because some believe that they have other avenues to pursue trade opening or regulating trade, such as through bilateral deals.”

The EU and some others agreed that this as an “immediate gateway” issue that is blocking progress even though they stressed that other difficult issues lie beyond the gate. Some delegations welcomed the EU’s efforts. Some others said that the focus on NAMA sectorals is driven by the export interests of some developed countries, deflecting attention away from the development objective of the Doha Round.

Several speakers repeated concerns they have expressed over the past months, least-developed and smaller developing countries in particular saying the deadlock prevents them from enjoying the gains that are already promised such as duty-free, quota-free market access for least-developed countries in richer markets, and cuts in cotton subsidies in rich countries.

Some developing countries repeated their complaint that richer countries are demanding too much. But some developing and developing countries said all members are at fault and that all share the responsibility of trying to find a way through.