Restrictions on imports were brought in as a temporary measure to defend the country’s foreign reserves. Even though it helped to slowly recover the reserves, on the flip side, we saw how those restrictions responded adversely, in many ways we couldn’t fathom. On the one hand there was a severe shortage of boxes and a reduced number of vessels touching Colombo port, which made the freight charges to surge exorbitantly, impacting the exporters. On the other hand, shortage of critical raw materials made a lot of local manufacturing businesses suffer. No doubt that country’s exports need to be aggressively pushed to build up much needed reserves, but the question is, in a globalized economy, can we only push exports while keeping the import doors shut. There should be fair play. Moreover, imports, if properly done, will also create price competition in the goods market. Thus, I’m of the view that import restrictions should be relaxed on a need-based nature to uplift the local businesses.
Restrictions on imports were brought in as a temporary measure to defend the country’s foreign reserves. Even though it helped to slowly recover the reserves, on the flip side, we saw how those restrictions responded adversely, in many ways we couldn’t fathom. On the one hand there was a severe shortage of boxes and a reduced number of vessels touching Colombo port, which made the freight charges to surge exorbitantly, impacting the exporters. On the other hand, shortage of critical raw materials made a lot of local manufacturing businesses suffer. No doubt that country’s exports need to be aggressively pushed to build up much needed reserves, but the question is, in a globalized economy, can we only push exports while keeping the import doors shut. There should be fair play. Moreover, imports, if properly done, will also create price competition in the goods market. Thus, I’m of the view that import restrictions should be relaxed on a need-based nature to uplift the local businesses.