Firstly, it is important to understand what importing is. For the purpose of this essay, importing will be defined as acquiring food supplies from foreign countries or regions. It should be noted that importing is a decision that is made by a certain country to compensate for a lack of or shortage of a particular product. Further, it is also resorted to when there is a huge price disparity on local produce and the imported product.
Australia has been known to control importing to a certain level as there are a lot of local producers within the nation. However, with globalization setting itself in, the country has slowly embraced it too. At a glance, importing looks really daunting to the economy of a nation as it creates more competition to the local producer. Looking at it more closely, it can actually bring in benefits to the economy as well. Here are three of the benefits: 1) It fills up the gap, 2) Save up on costs, 3) Brings in competition. Importing materials allows the country to achieve the standard of living that it envisions by filling in the gap on what they actually produce and what more they need to produce to achieve it. For example, in terms of fuel, the country imports the volume of fuel that they need but can’t produce in the Middle Eastern countries in Asia. Secondly, sometimes it is cheaper to import than to produce. This happens because other countries may be more efficient production or have the raw materials handy to produce the product. Lastly, it may be beneficial because it prevents monopoly and creates competition between businesses which will bring higher product quality and cheaper prices.
Importing is a two-sided coin and has its disadvantages to the Agricultural sector and the Economy.
On the Agricultural sector, the following are
References: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Gov-Inc/Importing.html http://www.thefreedictionary.com/import