Import controls and the sequencing of trade policy reform, with special reference to Africa

INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE Theory of rent-seeking behaviour, and its generalization to encompass a wider set of DUPe or Directly Unproductive Profit-seeking-activity (Krueger 1974; Bhagwati 1982; Bhagwati and Srinivasan 1982), has been widely regarded as one of the seminal contributions of the neo-liberal tradition.1 This acclaim has not, however, been without a strong reservation about the narrow context within which the neo-liberal theory of rent-seeking behaviour has been set.