Trade Policy At The Crossroads ― The Recent Experience Of Developing Countries

Shafaeddin examines the process of liberalization, primarily in the forms of export promotion and free trade to see if it is always conducive to economic growth, and whether the free market is always the best instrument to promote liberalization. He finds the situation is a great deal more complex than many policy-makers seem to think, and that programs and projects intended to bring masses of people out of poverty through development may not be well-timed, or will not provide the relief they promise because some economies simply are not ready for a sudden change. He analyzes data from case studies to show that rapid development may not be the answer to alleviating all poverty in all places, and that taking the needs and conditions of individual nations would be an effective alternative to applying theories globally and waiting for them to fail. Annotation c2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)