The purpose of the thesis has been to investigate whether there is a link between trade liberalism and economic growth in the Asian countries. Previous research has pointed out that correlation exists between these variables, but there have also been other researchers who criticized such a relationship. We discovered that economic growth studies had previously been conducted where countries in Asia were included. This motivated us to carry out our study as our research hopefully helps to replenish existing knowledge gap. In the study, we have used cross-sectional regression analysis for 30 Asian countries where data were collected for 1990-2000. Our dependent variable in our regression is average GDP per capita, which also defines growth. We have used two independent variables as main variables, trade volume and economic freedom index. Our analysis shows that the majority of the variables in the study have a positive significant relation to economic growth.

Keywords: economic growth, trade liberalism, trade, GDP / capita, EFI, direct investment, import, export.