THE TECHNOLOGY-TRADE NEXUS - LIBERALIZATION, WARRING BLOCS, OR NEGOTIATED ACCESS

The information age has triggered the emergence of a new basis for com petitive advantage for both firms and nations. It depends increasingly on technical know-how, research and development, investment strategie s of multinational firms, synergies, and untraded interdependencies wi thin production systems. This has transformed the rules of the game an d posed major challenges for policy makers. The paper develops a broad interpretative framework to examine these evolving realities, examine s in some detail the new challenges, and shows that some strategies in good currency (open liberalization, warring blocs) are ill inspired. Then it puts forward an alternative strategy of negotiated market acce ss likely to be more fruitful for middle-power countries, and sketches the basic orientations that such a strategy might take.