News / National
Government in import ban climb-down
23 May 2017 at 08:08hrs | Views
Mike Bimha - Minister of Industry and Commerce
Minister of Industry and Commerce Mike Bimha has made a U-turn on scrapping of Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016 and replacing it with a local content policy.
On Monday, state-controlled Herald quoted him saying the import ban would be replaced.
"The policy is anchored on prescribing sectoral local content thresholds for goods purchased by Government departments, industrialists and retailers, among others.
"Local content policy will be applied, and this will be considered as a smart protection measure. We would want to move away from the Statutory Instrument" he said as reported by the Herald.
However, Bimha yesterday that SI 64 had no lifespan and would remain in place and would be supported by the introduction of other measures.
"There is no tenure. The correct thing is that SI 64 is temporary" he is quoted saying.
"It is very situational. It varies from product to product, sector to sub-sector".
He added "I cannot have a thumb suck view and say 'ah for today it (SI 64) will be one year" What is the basis of that assertion? We need objective information and that is one of the mandates of the Evaluation and Monitoring Committee to give us an indication of how much time we can continue to support a particular sector. So there are no timelines."
On Monday, state-controlled Herald quoted him saying the import ban would be replaced.
"The policy is anchored on prescribing sectoral local content thresholds for goods purchased by Government departments, industrialists and retailers, among others.
"Local content policy will be applied, and this will be considered as a smart protection measure. We would want to move away from the Statutory Instrument" he said as reported by the Herald.
However, Bimha yesterday that SI 64 had no lifespan and would remain in place and would be supported by the introduction of other measures.
"There is no tenure. The correct thing is that SI 64 is temporary" he is quoted saying.
"It is very situational. It varies from product to product, sector to sub-sector".
He added "I cannot have a thumb suck view and say 'ah for today it (SI 64) will be one year" What is the basis of that assertion? We need objective information and that is one of the mandates of the Evaluation and Monitoring Committee to give us an indication of how much time we can continue to support a particular sector. So there are no timelines."
Source - Byo24News
