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RésuméL’Union européenne a longtemps usé de sa politique commerciale comme d’une politique extérieure de substitution, assurant son propre développement et modelant ses partenaires à son image. Cependant les difficultés internes – intérêts économiques et politiques divergents – et externes – négociations de l’OMC, politiques de la Chine ou des concurrents américain ou japonais – mettent à mal le modèle d’une Europe au fédéralisme inachevé, menant une politique étrangère qui ne s’assume pas comme telle.

The European Union has a tradition of using its external trade policy as an instrument of diplomacy, as a basis to further its own development. It also attempts thereby to lean on its partners, so that the latter may come to respect its norms and points of reference. The limits of this de facto external policy are however increasingly obvious: these are linked in particular to the internal divergences which exist between different members of the Union, as well as to the evolution of conditions external to the Union, such as the WTO negociation rounds, the rise of China as a superpower, or policies stemming from the American and Japanese competitors. Can the EU have a common trade policy which carries decisive weight, without at the same time holding a global diplomatic vision?