Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 113 of Anne Krueger’s 2020 book, International Trade: What Everyone Needs to Know (footnote deleted):

Protection, however, proved to be a very counterproductive measure for fostering economic growth. Those countries, such as South Korea, that dismantled their protection and provided a more level playing field for the production of import-competing and exportable goods alike found that their growth rates accelerated to astonishingly high levels. By the end of the twentieth century, QRs [quantitative restrictions on imports] and industrial policy were almost entirely abandoned.

DBx: It’s no coincidence that when South Korea greatly liberalized its trade in the mid-1960s, South Korea’s rate of economic growth rose.