Economies focused on exports have lifted millions out of poverty, but epochal changes in trade, supply chains and technology are making it a lot harder.
For more than half a century, the handbook for how developing countries can grow rich hasn't changed much: Move subsistence farmers into manufacturing jobs, and then sell what they produce to the rest of the world. The recipe — customized in varying ways by Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and China — has produced the most potent engine the world has ever known for generating economic growth. It has…