Import restriction will not add value to local industries - analyst

Political commentator Vince Musewe has said the import restriction being implemented by the government will not add value to the local industries but instead will spark continued civil unrest.

"Will restricting imports work?
"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" Martin Luther King Jr. There is this myth that if a country restricts imports it will automatically result in those imports being manufactured locally," he said.

He said that is not necessarily the case and depends on a lot of things being in place.

"Our long term plan as a country must surely be to import as little as possible and produce as much as we can locally, but the conditions or fundamentals are not yet in place," he said.

"Yes, at some stage we will have to protect our market as a country. The idea that free markets are good for the developing economies is a myth. Developing countries need first to build the capacity to compete globally before flooding their local markets with imports which kill the emergence of strong local companies and job opportunities."

Musewe said however, now is not the time, particularly given the fact that we do not have own capital to invest in our productive base.

"In addition, a large number of traders will be out of income thereby increasing the already high levels of those without a stable income. That is a recipe for disaster," he said.