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Certainly protectionism will prove to be no cure for unemployment and
inflation. However, if certain developed countries in Europe, North
America and elsewhere are determined, for the time being, to place a
degree of reliance on national or regional self-sufficiency in products
which they would otherwise obtain through the mechanism of world trade,
then I can see no alternative but for regional development banks to stress
regional self-sufficiency in their lending for development.
"This would require the Asian Development Bank to match its
involvement in the development process in individual member countries
with a strategic view of the development of the Asian and Pacific regional
as a whole. That is to say, in its innovative role, the Bank would seek
to support projects which were designed specifically to promote intra-
regional trade. This is not an approach which would be defensible in a
more liberal world trading environment, but there are certain implications
of protectionism which are inescapable (a slow-down in the growth rate of
even dynamic economies, for instance) and which must have, an influence
on the policies pursued by those adversely affected.
"Perhaps when it is realised by protectionist Governments that there
is an unpalatable reality about protectionism, that is to say, when they
realise that protectionism is bound to have consequences which damage all
members of the world trading economy, more liberal and hence more effective
even from a nationalistic point of view trade policies will be followed."
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