Effectiveness of Import Duty on Economic Growth

Import duty is money paid for permission to import goods or service from another country. It is a tax added to the price of a product by the authorities of the importing country. Import duties are either fixed or calculated as a percentage of the product’s value, which can change. Sometimes a government wants to protect certain domestic producers from foreign competition. One way of doing so is by imposing import duty, which makes foreign products more expensive, thus keeping the same domestic products more competitive. Sometimes governments impose duties when they wants to hurt another country by making its exports more expensive. This is usually done as a retaliatory measure in a trade war. A tax collected on imports and some exports by the customs authorities of a country. This tax is used to raise state revenue. It is based on the value of goods called ad valorem duty or the weight, dimensions, or other criteria of the item such as its size. Also referred to as customs duty, tariff, import tax and import tariff. Import duty is the application of a duty against goods and services from a foreign supplier. It is a tax on the value of imported goods, which raises their price to consumers.

Governments introduce tariffs to protect certain industries from competitive imports. The positive effects of import tariffs are felt mainly by local producers of the same goods, while the negative effects can be felt by the entire population, because of reduced competition and the higher prices consumers have to pay. Each country has a list of countries and goods to which duty is charged. Almost all countries use the same tariff classification system, which defines and provides tariff codes for all kinds of goods. For U.S. importers, this information is provided by the International Trade Commission. Goods imported from countries which have a free trade agreement with the importing country will be duty-free or will have reduced duty, depending on how they are covered in the agreement. The United States has free trade agreements with 16 countries, including Australia, Canada and Mexico. Importers of foreign goods need to know if, or how much, they will have to pay in tariffs for the goods they wish to buy abroad. Each government sets its own rates for all kinds of goods and services. Countries which are members of certain free trade areas, such as NAFTA in North America or the European Union, do not impose tariffs on goods imported from other members of the same area.

Also, members of the World Trade Organization aim to eliminate, reduce or at least the harmonize tariffs they charge each other. When import tariffs are charged, the consumers buy fewer imported products since they are more expensive, and producers expand production in response to the higher domestic price. The government collects the tax revenues which may be used to the benefit of society, but in the process generates an overall dead weight loss. The amount of revenues, as well as the changes in consumer and producer welfare and the overall net social loss, depend on the level of the tariff and the price elasticities of domestic demand and supply. Exemptions on gifts of a charitable nature imported by NGOs are limited to only those for Health and Educational purposes. All other items imported by NGOs will attract import duties unless Parliament specifically grants an exemption on the goods.The 1% Processing Fee on goods whose importation is statutorily exempt from the payment of Import Duty remains unchanged.Unaccompanied Personal Effects will attract the 1% processing fee.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The objective of the research can be divided into two parts namely; General objective and specific objective

* General objective
This research aim at examining effectiveness of import dut in economic growth of Tanzania by controlling the factors that affect import duty In studying relationship between import duty and economic growth I will include tarrif rates,GDP growth rate and market size as important variable in long and short run relationship. * Specific objectives

The first specific objective analyze the impact of presence import duty on economic growth of Tanzania.This is done to see if presence of import duty can lead to economic growth. The second objective is to examine impact of absence of import duty on economic growth.And this is also done to see if absence of import duty can lead to economic growth. The third objective is to analyse effectiveness of import duty on economic growth of both long and short run periods.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

* What the effectiveness of import duty in economic growth?
* What are negative and positive effect of import duty?
* Does import duty protect domestic producers?
* Does it generate more revenue compared to other tarrifs?