Proceed with caution: Is Sri Lanka’s Approach to Import Substitution Sensible?

A Pathfinder Perspective
In the immediate aftermath of the onset of the Covid19 pandemic and the unprecedented health and economic crises it unleashed, there was a widespread backlash in sentiment against globalization and open economic policies. The greatly increased human mobility associated with these phenomena were blamed for the rapid spread of the virus to all parts of the globe. The supply-side shocks, related even to basic goods, such as food and medicines, as well as demand pressures emanating from a rise in protectionism, were seen as being the result of the complex supply chains that underpinned the web of cross-border production networks that constitute a major part of the global economy on the one hand and the destruction of employment and incomes in an integrated world economy on the other.