Dear Editor,

The old adage “what goes around comes around”, when applied to the direction of global economic policies in relation to our domestic economy, warrants a re-examination and, perhaps, a re-calibration of Jamaica’s economic policies moving forward.

Protectionism has come full circle, though in a milder, deceitful form, more popularly known as neo-protectionism.

This is evident in the Air Passenger Duty imposed on outgoing flights from England. This well-constructed, carefully crafted tax, though trickling down to British vacationers in the form of higher plane fares, is, in essence, a tax on non-British tourism products (even more so against Caribbean countries like Jamaica, which depend on tourism for foreign exchange).

The USA, too, has subtly contrived a Food Safety Modernisation Act which seeks to restrict a majority, if not all, of our agricultural products to that country, unless our local producers are able to meet stringent requirements such as traceability on every value-added input.

Such a prerequisite is bound to add to the cost of these domestic products relative to substitute products in the home country.

It is high time our policymakers wake up and smell the coffee. There are ingenious ways of protecting the interest of our local sectors.

The powers that be are leading by example.

Oniel Edwards

oniel_rohan@yahoo.com