the authors note that trade liberalisation may reduce the capacity and choice of instruments for developingcountry governments to conduct redistribution programmes and thus help smooth the short and mediumterm impacts of trade reforms based on a joint study by the commonwealth secretariat and overseas development institute some per cent of the total estimated loss of developingcountry exports due to preference erosion would come from sves for certain countries such as st vincent and the grenadines st lucia dominica and sao tome and principe the loss of exports due to preference erosion could be as high as per cent of their merchandise exports see cali et al