The role of trade policy in economic development is a key focus in majority of studies. In the 1960s, along with the mainstream Western theoretical concepts, emerged two alternative scientific schools. In the USSR, Sergei Ivanovich Tulpanov encouraged the research on the economies of developing countries on the basis of Marxist theory. In Latin America, Raul Prebisch developed new research attitudes, which formed the basis for structuralism in the economic analysis and the dependency theory. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the scientific concepts of S.I. Tulpanov and R. Prebisch and discusses their relevance in the modern terms of the world economy