Trade and industrial policies: past performance and future prospects

During the course of 1997 and 1998, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) carried out the project Comparative study of development strategies of selected East-Asian and Latin American countries with special reference to trade and industrial policies under the new international trading system". The project was designed to extract from the experiences of both regions the essence of the appropriate public policy in industrial and trade development and to identify its new role and available instruments, in conformity with the post-Uruguay Round trade regime. For this purpose, six comparative case studies (Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil and Chile) were undertaken. This paper summarizes the major conclusions of the six studies and explores possible areas for future policy. It is generally assumed that as a result of the Uruguay Round and other international trade accords, developing countries will face more stringent restrictions on their ability to conduct selective trade and industrial policies. On the other hand, the conclusions of these six papers indicate that the room for manoeuvre has by no means disappeared, and a number of policies can be still exploited by developing countries for industrial and trade pursuits, which conform to the commitments of the Round and other trade agreements."