During the 1990s, South Africa's trade policy was drastically reformed. This mainly entailed rapid tariff liberalisation agreed to under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994, and implemented from 1995 onwards under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). South Africa's trade policy reform was premised on the assumption that tariff liberalization would increase the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing industries. The thesis attempts to ascertain if this did in fact materialise by critically appraises the impact of trade policy reform on the production of the South African manufacturing sector. The results indicate that tariff liberalisation has not been successful in securing improved competitiveness. The thesis argues that improved competitiveness goes beyond trade policy reform — government polices should also be directed at issues relating to efficiency in production, distortions in factor markets and institutional development. The desired or appropriate level of openness does not necessarily entail completely free markets for trade and investment. In the light of market and institutional failures the role of government in securing the appropriate industrial outcomes should not be underestimated. / Thesis (DCom (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Economics / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/26100 |
| Date | 07 July 2004 |
| Creators | Rangasamy, Juganathan |
| Contributors | Prof C Harmse, Prof C du Toit, logan.rangasamy@resbank.co.za |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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