ABSTRACT
The economic success of the Asia Pacific region over the past two decades has been built on openness to international trade and foreign investment. Debates continue about the role of government policy in steering this success, but the fact that tariffs on imports were reduced and restrictions on foreign investment relaxed cannot be contested. The manner in which these policies were implemented offers important lessons for developing countries still searching for a path to integrate into the world trading system. Instead of pursuing regional or preferential schemes, the Asia Pacific economies, using the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum as a framework, adopted a policy of unilateral or most-favoured-nation (MFN) liberalisation.
