Négociations commerciales multilatérales et cycle de Doha : les leçons d’un échec annoncé

In 2001, a new round of multilateral negotiations has been launched in Doha (Doha Development Agenda, "DDA”). Hosted and managed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) has stalled and no time limit is set for its completion. The negotiation is based on mechanisms that aim to simplify a complex negotiation process, which involves multiple actors dealing with many issues. The article shows that the current rules nor simplifies the negotiation process, nor enlarges a too narrow negotiating space what makes the success all the more uncertain than internal institutional constraints hanging over the leading countries like the United States are now harder than in 2001. Under these conditions, the principles of negotiation as the "package deal" or the consensus rule proved too demanding. The article concludes by offering some ideas to improve the negotiating rules.