Cheap imports - friend or foe?

摘要

For about 50 years now, people have spoken in worried tones about imports from Asia. First it was cars and plastic toys from Japan. They were universally derided as cheap and nasty. As time went by the focus shifted to Taiwan, then India. Imports from these places were so cheap that local products couldn't compete. Local manufacturers lobbied government to place huge import duties on them so the local market could survive. Toys, cars, textiles, cable glands, circuit breakers, cable - it didn't take long for importers of consumer goods to add components used in the electrical sector to their orders.