Many promotions have been done to boost the exclusive consumption of local products. I somehow disagree with this idea as it will affect global economic growth, and this act is considered as the oppression of individuals’ freedom.
If a nation decides to consume only locally made items, it will affect international trade among countries and, ultimately, global economic development. When the government limits its residents to eat only crops grown domestically or use products manufactured in-house, there will be no demand for exported products, and if there is a surplus of certain types of crops, the country will need to strategise their distributions, but most of the time, they end up in the rubbish bins if the farmers could not export them to other countries. For instance, Thailand produces a large number of mangoes annually, and they export the ready-to-eat ones overseas to generate massive incomes. However, if the importing countries choose to close this international trade agreement, it would have a major impact on the exporting countries, such as Thailand.
Moreover, if the government chooses to ban exported products and issues a guideline for its citizens to utilise only domestic commodities, it would also affect their freedom of consumption. This simply means that many options will not be available in the markets, which would be problematic because different people have different preferences. For example, rather than having homemade meals every day, modern Cambodian people tend to go to restaurants on the weekend to try out different kinds of cuisines, such as that of Japan, Korea, and France, which require the import of foreign ingredients to cook.
In conclusion, I somewhat disagree with the notion that people should only utilise locally made products because it would have a major impact on the economic development globally in the long run, and doing so would also affect people’s freedom of consumption.