Trade policies have shifted dramatically over the last quarter-century in ‘developing’
nations. Economic reforms have been successful in many parts of the world, but some nations
have not been able to implement beneficial trade policy reforms. In the 1990s, Ghana liberalized
restrictions on imports, lowering tariff rates and eliminating most non-tariff barriers. Trade
volumes grew rapidly throughout the latter half of the 1990s and into the 2000s, a time of
unprecedented globalization. Using the Regional Program on Enterprise Development (RPED)
database and World Trade Organization (WTO) data, I examine the impact of increased import
competition on Ghana’s manufacturing sector over the decade from 1992 to 2002. I employ a
series of empirical models to estimate the effect of import competition on the output and
productivity of domestic firms. Textile and garment producers benefited from increased
competition but metal and machine product manufacturers were harmed by import competition.
