Columbia'S "National Development Plan" Import Tariffs On Imported Textiles Cited Controversy

The national development plan is a governing program of every government in Columbia and a basic act for the economic and social development of the country.

Recently, the media such as "the times" and other major media reported on adding tariff items to imported textiles in the "national letter planning (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as "planning") at the stage of congressional deliberation.

In March 22nd, the first round of discussions on the plan was concluded by the Costa Rica. Some of the items that had been approved included a 10% tariff on imported textiles (sixty-first, sixty-second chapter of customs code) with a price of more than 20 US dollars / kilogram.

Since then, the Costa Textile Association has proposed a tariff rate of $20 / kg for imported textiles from 15% to 37.9%.

The proposal was endorsed by several congressmen and will be sent to the second round of parliamentary discussions.

The above two items of planning have been widely discussed by all sectors of the society.

Supporters said that the prices of labor and products in Asia, Africa and other places were too low to enter the Colombian market. The export of textiles to these countries was only 1% of their exports to Costa Rica. The proportion of Ge textile industry accounted for 8.2% of the industrial GDP, which accounted for 21% of the employment in the industrial sector, accounting for 19% of the manufacturing industry's exports, and the output value of 4 billion 500 million dollars in 2018. The sales volume reached 5 billion US dollars, which was an important part of the national economy. At present, the elder brother textile industry provided 1 million 500 thousand jobs, but the loss of employment caused by the import of products has reached 600 thousand.

The objection came from the National Association of entrepreneurs and the National Association of foreign trade and other aspects. They pointed out that there were four main adverse effects on the entry of the tariff added items in the planning of the plan: first, the political constitution of the elder brother ruled that the tariff ruling was an administrative power, and now it was suspected of being unconstitutional; two, it violated the multilateral bilateral trade agreements signed by the brothers, which was unfavorable to the international image of the elder brother, especially, it was not conducive to maintaining relations with major trading partners and neighbouring countries (such as Panama); three, increased marginal profits of smuggling and indirectly contributed to smuggling; four, exemption from tax increases in the countries of the free trade agreement would result in the commodities flowing into Columbia in the form of re export trade, and could not achieve the policy goal of protecting their own industries.