Trading Promises for Results

Download or read book Trading Promises for Results written by Mauricio Mesquita Moreira and published by Inter-American Development Bank. This book was released on 2019-09-23 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years after the region embarked on large-scale liberalization, trade policy could have been expected to become all but irrelevant. Instead, a mismatch between expectations and what could realistically be delivered set the stage for much of the disappointment, skepticism, and fatigue regarding trade policy in the region, particularly in the early 2000s. By setting the bar unrealistically high, governments and analysts made trade policies an easy target for special interests that were hurt by liberalization and for those ideologically opposed to free trade. The most immediate victims were the more tangible growth and welfare gains, whose relevance was lost amid the noise of grandiose visions.