The global supply chain is been severely affected by natural disasters, tensions between nations and global pandemics. To this some experts propose that each country should prioritize their citizens first and also should cut off dependencies from foreign countries. This essay partially agrees with the statement and discusses both sides.
By sufficing their citizens, a country can make sure that they are not suffering from shortage of any commodity or food in any part of their nation. Making this as a priority, a nation can make the best use of man-power and boost the their productivity and hence their economy. Also, with this a nation or a state can gain the trust and support from their people, which would benefit the welfare of the society. Being less reliable on international trade also proves beneficial, as a country save big fraction of their economy and use it for improving their health care and education. Opening new sectors would again open employment opportunities for people within the country. For example, during covid pandemic India provided free vaccination to all it’s citizens and made sure that all of their people have been vaccinated. They then exported vaccines and medicines to other countries only after the successful vaccination of all it’s citizens. This proved to be beneficial, as number of fatalities gradually declined after the vaccination drives.
However, this has a drawback too, being less reliable on other international trade make one nation deprived of variety of raw materials and commodities which can’t be manufactured there. This would cause a nation to have smaller selection of variety of goods which cause hike in prices for variety of goods. Nation become overly reliant on domestic goods and cause shortage across the country. Lack of dependency on international trade along with self prioritization make a country politically isolated from other nations. For example, when Russia-Ukraine war broke out western countries stopped international trade with Russia which caused inflation and the value of Russian currency declined.
To conclude, self prioritizing their nation would become beneficial in boosting their economy by creating employment opportunities while, it has drawback which involves lack of political support from other nations.