The Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations was supposed to be precisely that - a chance to put the needs of developing nations at the centre of trade reforms in a bid to ease poverty and provide increased opportunities for the world's poorest.
But with negotiations stuttering into the final day and NGOs fighting for workers' rights, farmers in developing countries say the talks have been hijacked by self-centred rich nations.
'This was supposed to be a unique opportunity to put the needs of developing countries at the centre of international trade negotiations,' said Aftab Alam Khan, head of ActionAid's trade justice campaign. 'But what we see is anti-development in that some of the proposals could be devastating for farmers and labourers in the developing world.'
The trade spat between the EU and US over the size of domestic agriculture subsidies has dominated media coverage all week. This concentration on rich countries may belie the name of this round of talks but it is not entirely inappropriate as the EU and US are considered two of the worst offenders, distorting global agriculture prices through their domestic industry support mechanisms.
A far greater problem, according to Mr Khan, is that the media often misses the significance of the two sides' proposals and their potential to harm developing countries.
ActionAid's Trade Invaders report, published ahead of this week's meetings, illustrates the impact trade liberalisation can have, such as the closure of 20 textile factories in Nigeria thanks to the removal of tariffs on imports and 500,000 people in South Africa having their water cut off for failure to pay bills after privatisation.