DOES TRADE LIBERALIZATION PROMOTE ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT

The last twenty years have seen an extraordinary number of trade liber alisation episodes in developing countries, Some have been voluntary, most have been policy conditioned under the aegis of the Bretton Woods agencies. This paper begins by setting our the background to these tr ade reform programmes and details their ingredients. It then goes on t o review the evidence extant on liberalisation and growth and reports new evidence. The latter suggests that liberalisation does tend to enh ance growth, albeit with a lag. The paper concludes with an analysis o f the lessons learned from experience with liberalisation in terms of credibility, timing and sequencing.