Global Trade Liberalization and the Erosion of Tariff Preferences

Ben Muse has a good summary of one transition problem as we move toward Global Trade Liberalization:

• Some developed countries have tariff walls, keeping out the cheap competition from developing economies.
• The developed countries, perhaps in an effort to aid some developing economies, set up preferential treatment for some of those countries, allowing them to sell in the developed country but under the tariff protection against competition from other developing economies.
• Global Trade Liberalization means the countries that had been helped by preferential tariffs will be made worse off.

Too bad. Do we believe in comparative advantage and gains from trade, or don't we? But Ben Muse says it so much more nicely. His reference is to this piece from the World Bank.