It is called import to commercial action that implies and leads to the introduction of foreign products in a certain country with the mission of marketing them.
Commercial activity that consists of introducing foreign products to a country to sell them
Basically, on import, one country acquires goods and products from another. “By not being able to specify the importation of the mother products, our company is stopped in terms of production.”
What imports then does is formally and legally transfer products that are produced in another country and that are demanded for consumption and use in the country to which they are taken.
Regulation of the activity: imposition of taxes
Imports, that is, the products that are imported, enter the receiving country through the borders and are normally subject to the payment of royalties established by the country in question.
Likewise, there are many other conditions that are imposed to regulate this commercial activity.
The primary objective pursued with imports is to be able to acquire, dispose of, products, goods, which are not produced in one country but are produced in another, or which are obtained cheaper in another nation, or are of better quality.
Advantages and disadvantages
Now, as in any commercial action, importation will involve advantages and disadvantages.
On the profit side, in the event that imported products have a lower commercial value, the consumer will be more encouraged to purchase them and, for each case, more money will circulate.
And as for the strictly negative, we find that if imported products have a much lower value than their national counterparts, that will undoubtedly end up harming the national industry.
All countries need products or services that are produced in others, so many times importation is motivated by the procurement of raw materials, machinery, or any product that does not exist in the country.
Meanwhile, in those countries where local production costs are very high due to, for example, national taxes, imports appear on the commercial horizon as an alternative to face this high cost.
But of course, in the latter case the country will face a scenario that will complicate its economic activity because the excessive importation of products will kill the local industry that will not be able to compete in any way with the low costs of the imported products.
It is because of this commercial disadvantage that many countries will end up implementing protectionist policies for their industry in order to protect it from the rain of imports; a recurring measure is to tax imports with high taxes, or directly close the possibility of importing, when the situation is serious.
Products that are imported
On the other hand, we call importation set of products that are imported. “At this time, in our country, there are more imports than exports.”
The concept that is directly opposed is that of export, which on the contrary refers to the shipment or marketing of own products to another nation.
There is a concept of outstanding importance with regard to import and export actions, which is that of balance of trade.
Trade balance: difference between imports and exports
The trade balance is the value in banknotes obtained from the difference between the goods that are exported and the goods that are imported.
Meanwhile, it will be positive if exports are greater than imports, and negative otherwise.
However, the trade balance only represents exports and imports of products without including investments, services and capital movements between nations.
As we just indicated, imports remain in the trade balance while exports will add.
The balance of the trade balance, which is the result of the addition and subtraction of exports and imports, respectively, may give us two results, on the one hand, a trade surplus, when exports exceed imports, that is, the balance it will be positive.
And on the other hand, talk about trade deficit, when imports are more than exports, the balance being negative.
The trade of a nation will be balanced when imports do not exceed exports, and remain in equal volumes.
There are factors, such as consumer preferences regarding the inclination for imported or domestic products, and conjunctural issues, such as the exchange rate and the current government's trade policy, that can directly affect the result of the trade balance. .
