Role of trade in development and overview of Asia-Pacific LDCs’ performance in trade and investment

Many argue that with continuous “gloom and doom” prospects of the global economy, the future for any country that relies on trade must be challenging. This challenge is particularly threatening for the LDCs as the commitments by the international community made towards promoting the integration of this group of countries into the global economy by giving them easy, smooth and predictable access to markets for their goods and services have not been yet met. Thus in addition to having to fight with enormous limitations in productive and institutional capacities of their own, LDCs still face traditional trade obstacles imposed by importers. This chapter recalls the important role of trade in growth and development. The reminder of the chapter then reviews performance of Asia-Pacific LDCs in trade, own border and behind-the-border barriers, and foreign trade investment mostly for a period starting in 2000. Since the focus of analysis is on Asia-Pacific LDCs, to simplify the presentation, unless otherwise specified, Asia-Pacific LDCs are referred to as the “LDCs”.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development