Les théories du commerce international. État actuel des connaissances et controverses

We present a summing up of the state of the art in this field, by first recalling the principal results provided by traditional theories. These results are then confronted with those obtained from the recent theoretical developments which reflect a renewed vision of markets and products, and of the role attributed to consumers', firms', and also to the government's behavour which provides arguments for strategic trade policies as opposed to the traditional optimal policy intervention. We conclude in assessing the chance of success of such strategic trade policies in the world market.