In Search of Coherence : Kazakhstan's Trade and Industrial Policy

This paper aims to explain the evolution of Kazakhstan’s trade and industrial policy through an examination of official documents and declarations, policymaking processes and general government practices in the context of economic and geopolitical environment. The history of trade policy is presented in two periods: the liberalisation in the difficult 1990s and the rise in protectionism in the subsequent boom. The rise of protectionism coincided with a general reorientation of economic policies towards statism and is associated with improvements in fiscal and external balances and continued centralisation of political power