Both free trade and protectionism have been proffered as prescriptions for Third World development but neither has carried universal conviction. Neither import substitution nor export promotion strategies have come up to expectations. The author advocates a limited measure of delinking from the...

Inherent in this subject is the question of foreign trade: Does it help or hinder development of LDCs or, more concretely, under what conditions and by what measures can positive effects be achieved and negative results be avoided?

The following article outlines the theories of development strategy which approach the subject from the theory of growth and discusses their practical applicability to planning activities in developing countries.