What business wants business (often) gets. Many of the executives popping in and out of panel discussions in Davos this week have been pushing harder than usual for a resumption of the stalled Doha round of world trade talks. Abracadabra! A meeting of government ministers on the sidelines, to use the jargon, agreed to get the ball rolling again.

Some, like Brazil’s foreign minister Chelso Amorim even reckon a trade deal of some sort can be hashed out by the end of March or early April. That would be earlier than the six months demanded earlier this week in a Davos-related statement from top chairmen and chief executive officers.

It all remains to be seen, of course, but the World Economic Forum will see the agreement to restart talks as a success for its annual meeting. On which point, I would add something to my earlier blog about why people come here.

Davos-like events make it easier, perhaps even providing an excuse, for the very busy to get together without calling for a special meeting. Sometimes it’s the big guys like trade
ministers here or Middle East peace plan negotiators in the WEF’s Jordan meeting some years back.

But it also happens on a micro level. One Californian executive told me he had been trying in vain for months to get together with some local counterparts back home. In the end, they got together here.