Despite the decade-long Doha Round logjam, trade liberalisation and new rule writing has proceeded at a furious pace outside the WTO. The majority of WTO members, however, ignore the lessons of Doha failure and non-WTO successes, preferring to extend Doha deadlines and pretend it is still doable. This Policy Insight argues that this ‘extend and pretend’ approach is a mortal threat to the WTO.