Time to curtail the importation of frivolous items

Mar 29, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
There is much talk these days about the 1970’s levy on sugar. But there was also a levy on bauxite that no one seems to remember. These levies were in place after the nationalisation of both industries. Many problems still surfaced in the economic sphere of the nation despite the fact that extra monies were placed in the economy. What we did at that time was not quite what should have been done. A lot of the money garnered by the levies was used to support our tastes for foreign goods and for structural adjustment of the economy.
These monies should have been placed in a wealth fund and used for the retooling of both industries. We did not do this and thus useful funds went down the pipe. When the regime did get to the position of import substitution it was too late for people to use their political clout to maintain the status quo. No sooner had the author of the economic swing been buried, that we witnessed efforts to bring back ‘aloo’ and other such products.
We are now feeling the effects of not going down the road of import substitution. Had we persisted we would have now been reaping the gains from those earlier sacrifices. We could now have been able to compress the sugar and bauxite industries. We would have been able to open up newer industries and still maintain the older ones at different levels. The nation would not now be facing economic and political pressure.
This is the opportune time for the current government to curtail the importation of frivolous items. There are too many items on the shelves of our shops that bring no perceivable value to the quality of life here. These are items that are being constantly viewed on the TV. People with more disposable income would rush to acquire items as a means of ‘moving up’ in life. The current US dollar impasse tends to show that we need to concentrate on essentials. Foreign exchange should only be now used for the importation of really essential items. Persons traveling should be given fixed amounts of foreign currency and a reasonable ceiling should be worked out.
The European Union has recently announced measures which would cut back their demand for cane sugar from the ACP countries. More reliance would be placed on their native production of beet sugars. Our spirits production is also a matter of concern since the overseas emphasis would now be placed on high end spirits. We need to face reality and position ourselves for the new way forward. The proposed sovereign wealth fund for the accumulation of oil revenues should be carefully worked out. We should also think seriously about a fund encompassing the revenues from gold. These industries will not last till eternity, so we need to properly invest any monies which we garner from them.
Cyril Walker

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Time to curtail the importation of frivolous items

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