The trap of a soft consensus. Were we to base ourselves on the debates of the Conference organised in Brussels on 27 September by the "European Confrontations Circle", there would be no ground for optimism on the forthcoming re-launch by the WTO of a new world trade negotiations round.. NGOs that spoke out against, or laid down a series of impossible preconditions, were indeed numerous or famous enough, and stated or made it understood that they were speaking on behalf and in the interests...