A Review of the Remaining Import Restrictions

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An accounting of the commodities ever subjected to import regulations shows that a significant number have been either restricted after being liberalized, liberalized after being restricted a second time, liberalized twice in a row, liberalized but not in Circular 1029, double-counted, mentioned as liberalized but having no specific PSCCs or could not be traced to previous regulations. Taking all these into account yields 250 remaining regulated commodities that exceeds the official count of 174 by 76 items or the number that has been left out of the Lists by Circular 1389. Regression results show that foreign equity is significantly positively correlated with the likelihood that an industry is protected by import restrictions. In addition, industrial concentration is significantly positively correlated with the presence of import restrictions and negatively correlated with tariffs. As an illustration of welfare effects of protection, the automotive assembly industry is used to demonstrate huge consumer/efficiency losses and large transfers to assemblers and components manufacturers. Controls are difficult to remove once instituted and the indecisiveness of government has made popular the lobbying of interest groups.