With these overall costs in mind, let us now consider, one by one, a number of arguments that support

restricting imports.

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20.3 • Arguments in Support of Restricting Imports 483

The Infant Industry Argument

Imagine Bhutan wants to start its own computer industry, but it has no computer firms that can produce at a

low enough price and high enough quality to compete in world markets. However, Bhutanese politicians,

business leaders, and workers hope that if the local industry had a chance to get established, before it needed

to face international competition, then a domestic company or group of companies could develop the skills,

management, technology, and economies of scale that it needs to become a successful profit-earning domestic

industry. Thus, the infant industry argument for protectionism is to block imports for a limited time, to give
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