Timing and Sequencing of Trade Liberalization in Developing Countries

There is surprisingly general agreement, not only among academics and international institutions but also among those responsible for policymaking in developing countries, that it would be desirable to achieve a considerable measure of trade liberalization. A large body of empirical evidence has convinced most of those whose minds are not entirely closed on the subject of the positive relation between trade policy and economic growth. While many questions remain open for debate – for example, whether it is neutrality between the incentive to export and to produce import substitutes or the more stringent requirement of more or less complete liberalization of imports that matters – it is now quite widely agreed that something needs to be done to improve the rationality of the trade regimes of many developing countries…