I. Points covered:- How did today’s developed

countries become rich?- What lessons from the past

should today’s developing countries learn?

II. Critical skills: critique

What can today’s developing countries learn from the development process of today’s developed countries from the 17th to the 20th century?

How do the developmental policies of today’s developed nations compared to the measures recommended to today’s less developed nations?

Development in the past (1600-1970) had little to do with the laissez faire policies which the WTO and IMF recommend to developing countries today.

‘Infant industry promotion’:It is very difficult for a country to develop if it practises free trade.

Why? Because its domestic industry won’t survive the competition of more developed nations.

Examples: Britain and the US‘Kicking away the ladder’

Japan: an alternative ladder to development

Chang (p. 27): Important to compare not tariff levels but tariff levels in comparison to the amount of ‘catching up’ a nation has to do relative to the richest nations.

Elements of the model:1)Heavy state intervention in:

investment, credit provision, state banks, training/education, infrastructure

2)Protectionism (undervalued exchange rate, tariffs)

2 mutually exclusive critiques of WTO:

1)WTO rules and free trade are good; however, rules are not fairly applied. The solution is to apply the rules fairly.

2) Free trade not unambiguously good; it is bad during the ‘catching up’ period; prior to catching up, developing countries should be exempt from WTO rules.

- Economists and politicians are often totally ignorant of historical fact.

- Do NDCs have an interest in the development of LDCs?