Economic Policies at Cross Purposes

As developing countries become increasingly important in the international economy, there is an urgent need to reassess U.S. policies. This book examines the various U.S. international economic policies that affect developing countries and shows that American policies regarding trade, aid, debt, and the multilateral institutions are undertaken largely without coordination and often conflict with each other. Tracing the evolution of foreign aid, Anna Krueger explains that just after World War II American economic policies toward developing countries consisted almost entirely of foreign aid. This approach was highly successful at first, but then the ability of USAID officials to carry out their mandate eroded over time because of political constraints and conflicting objectives of the aid program. She assesses the U.S. role toward the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and argues that the United States could have been far more effective in these institutions. Krueger then addresses trade policy. Although U.S. leadership to obtain an open multilateral trading system was regarded as a policy oriented toward developed countries, the resulting growth of the world trading system permitted rapid growth of developing countries. As developing countries have adopted realistic economic policies that are conducive to economic efficiency and growth, they have become more important trading partners for the United States and other developed countries. Looking at the evolution of U.S. policy toward the heavy debt burdens of developing countries, Krueger explains that U.S. policy has generally been one step behind the realities of the era. Illustrating how trade, aid, and debt policies interact, Krueger examines two cases: The Caribbean Basin Initiative and Korea. She shows that in Korea, for example, highly successful aid policies of the 1950s helped lay the foundations for rapid economic growth, while the success of Korea's exports then led to acrimonious relations over its trade and exchange rate policies. Krueger concludes by calling for a firmer U.S. commitment to an open multilateral trading system, and points to the interdependence between foreign and trade policies.