This paper proposes to provide a presentation of France's external trade in recent years and of the main mechanisms relevant to a macroeconomic analysis of this aspect of French trade. It demonstrates how trends in our external trade linked to changes in the general economic climate are determined by the manufacturing sector and can be explained by three types of factors : - the fact that the French economic climate is often out of step with that of its major foreign trading partners ; - the competitiveness of products at home and abroad ; - the type of specialization within the industrial sector and particularly how it adapts to international market trends.
