This book is a timely re-examination of the role of trade policy in development strategies. Through insightful analyses and five country studies of semi-industrialized economies, it shows that sustained growth performance is associated with policies geared to the creation of competitiveness in new sectors, rather than to the exploitation of current comparative advantages. This has required selectivity in trade policy and an activist exchange rate policy. The book also places the current trade policy debates in the context of the international policy environment that is emerging in an increasingly globalized world economy.