1 Making Trade Preferences More Effective

Do trade preferences work? Trade preferences are intended to help developing countries export. But do they? There is a lively debate over whether the ‘gains ’ for favoured states are ‘paid for ’ by other countries that may be equally poor. Even for the favoured states, though, questions have been raised over how far their producers benefit. Does the ‘small print ’ of the trade preferences prevent exporters in general (or poor producers in particular) from taking full advantage of them? Who gains most: exporters or rich-country importers? Trade preferences do work … These questions have been addressed in a study by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) comparing th