Economía Internacional

Grupo 3: Apolo Melany, Romero Mikaela,Paredes Maria Gratzia, Intriago Andrés

Taller - Developing Countries

1. Which countries appear to have most benefited from international trade
during the last few decades? What policies do these countries seem to have
in common? Does their experience lend support to the infant industry
argument or help to argue against it?
High performance Asian countries appear to have most benefited from
international trade. These countries have in common export-led growth,
high savings rates, and rapid improvements in education.No, their
experience argues against it because the HPAE countries have lower
average rates of protection than other developing countries.

2. “Japan’s experience makes the infant industry case for protection better
than any theory. In the early 1950s Japan was a poor nation that survived
by exporting textiles and toys. The Japanese government protected what at
first were inefficient, high-cost steel and automobile industries, and those
industries came to dominate world markets.”
First of all, there is no complete evidence that the protection of the infant
industry was the cause of the development related to Japan. At the end of
the WWII, countries start applying the policy of import-substituting. This
policy tries to replace foreign importers with domestic products using
tariffs. At first, it was working, but this policy started losing favor because
countries noticed this was ineffective. It was necessary to use several
approaches and get behind other powerful nations. Globalization was
improving, and they had to be with it if they were not poor. Otherwise, this
also helps, at least when the industry is growing, because it makes it start
developing without a fearless competitor.