The Experience of Trade Liberalisation in Pakistan

Trade policies in developing countries have been at the centre-stage of analysis for the past several decades. The desire for rapid economic growth in developing countries raised many question about the relationship between trade and growth [Krueger (1997a)]. It is, by now, well-established that there exists a strong positive relationship between export growth and overall economic growth in general and manufactured export growth and overall economic growth in particular.1 Those countries that have been most successful in expanding their manufactured exports have not only achieved higher economic growth but also succeeded in alleviating poverty? This has indeed been the case in East Asia [ADB (1997)]. The core question therefore is: which trade strategies have enabled countries to expand exports in general and manufactured exports in particular?