Du lancement du Programme de Doha pour le développement au report de la douzième conférence ministérielle de l'OMC, quelle coopération commerciale multilatérale ?

ABSTRACT

The deferral of the 12th ministerial conference (CM-XII) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), initially scheduled for December 2021, revives the dual crisis of efficiency and legitimacy of the multilateral trade system, as well as of the organisation itself. The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) model, launched in 2001 and based on mercantilist growth strategies with special and differentiated treatment depending on the countries' level of development, appears less and less operational. Indeed, the WTO has to deal with new balances of wealth and power in a changing international economy. This article aims to outline the potential trajectories of the multilateral trading system by first reviewing the history of the DDA and the preparatory process for the CM-XII, and then focusing on what they reveal about the international economic relations and the prospects for the evolution of multilateral trade cooperation in times of Covid-19 pandemic. © 2022 Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques. All rights reserved.