Some highlights from this evening’s discussion of the Doha negotiations at Columbia University:

• On why it’s called the DDA: “I was facing down a half-dozen trade ministers who said, ‘I stood in my parliament and said there’d be no new trade round.’ So I said, ‘it’s not a trade round; it’s a development agenda’. [:::pffffffttt:::] It’s the sort of thing that doesn’t show up in many textbooks that gets the process going.” – Mike Moore
• On Doha’s prospects: “I must say, I have never heard Pascal Lamy more grim than this evening.” – Merit Janow
• “If Doha goes, no one is ever going have a multilateral round again.” – Jagdish Bhagwati

[My transcriptions are closer to quotations than paraphrasing, but these are not verbatim.]

Also on Doha, don’t miss this Alan Beattie tweet.