The post-Uruguay round world trading system, industrialisation, trade and development: implications for Asia-Pacific developing countries

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the Uruguay Round Agreements for domestic economic policy in developing countries, particularly those in the Asia Pacific region. Apart from trade liberalization these Agreements have also extended multilateral rules and disciplines to a number of policy areas affecting industrial development and competitiveness with regard to both goods and services. Such policies generally defined as industrial policies have been extensively used notably by fast growing countries in the Asia Pacific region to foster exports and to achieve rapid structural change and economic growth. This paper has analyzed the Uruguay Round Agreements in order to answer the following three questions: a) How will the Agreements affect the industrial and export promotion policies currently being pursued by the Asian-Pacific countries? b) To the extent that some of these policies may need to be abandoned to comply with the Agreements, how would that affect economic development of these countries? c) In so far as the net effects of the Agreements on the developing countries is negative, what can these countries do to eliminate, or to reduce, such unfavourable outcomes?