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Trade liberalization is a widely accepted policy for fostering economic growth, particularly in developing countries. Advocates argue that open economies, through increased competition, specialization, and access to global markets, outperform closed economies. However, the short-term effects on developing economies like Nigeria remain debated, especially within the manufacturing sector. Nigeria's trade policy has fluctuated between protectionism and openness, significantly influencing its manufacturing performance. Critics, drawing from dependency theory, argue that liberalization exposes weaker economies to exploitation by stronger nations, leading to trade imbalances and inhibiting industrial growth. This study investigates the nonlinear effects of trade liberalization on Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, addressing a gap in the literature by employing a quadratic approach to determine threshold effects. By incorporating a quadratic form of the trade variable, the study tests the hypothesis that trade liberalization initially boosts the manufacturing sector but results in diminishing returns as openness intensifies. The research is framed within the Laffer Curve of Trade, suggesting that beyond a certain threshold, excessive openness may harm the manufacturing sector. The AutoRegressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to assess both short-run and long-run effects, with findings indicating a convex relationship between trade liberalization and manufacturing output, highlighting the critical importance of identifying optimal policy thresholds to maximize industrial growth. 

The research revealed and analysed a trend, between 1995-2020, of a declining gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) to domestic value added in gross exports (DVA in Gross exports) ratio in manufacturing industries for most Advanced Economies, which occurred on the backdrop of increasing of intermediate consumption of professional services. Our model proves the partial substitution of GFCF with intermediate consumption of professional services in Advanced Economies due to the change of production operating model (value chain management in manufacturing industries), which is evidenced by high influence of the combined factor on the DVA in Gross exports. This substitution facilitates the upgrading of value chain by creation of backward and forward linkages for manufacturing industries, depending on their R&D intensity. Systemic and long-term nature of changes may reflect potential paradigm shift in Advanced Economies' production operating models. 

Non-tariff measures such as food safety and technical standards are used to achieve the non-trade objective of protecting consumers’ health and safety. On the other hand, they can also be deployed as a trade secure tool to drive a price wedge between foreign and domestic producers. This study investigates the protectionist tools of 34 developing countries food safety standards using a sample of developing countries food imported from developed and other developing countries with a specific focus on vegetables, Trunks, machinery, and tobacco. We employ theoretical framework of gravity equation by applying SGMM estimation. Our results indicate that vegetable and machinery variables are negative and statistically significant. Meaning that both variables have a negative impact on GDP, in other words, both variables are not support GDP and economic growth in the developing countries. Finally, Trunk variable is positive and statistically significant. It shows that, this variable leads to promote economic growth in the developing countries. While Tobacco is positive and statistically insignificant, meaning that this product is not play an important role in the trade sector in our sample countries.