The policy of government intervention to protect domestic industrial production to replace imports has come to be known as ‘import-substituting industrialisation’, or ISI. An important rationale for this policy is the ‘infant-industry argument’. In the face of competition from industrially developed countries, the nascent or new industries in developing countries may not develop. And imports of manufactured commodities from developed countries will continue. Therefore, it is argued that in the initial stages of industrialisation, state protection is necessary for the development of domestic industries in the developing countries. Starting infant industries for the production of commodities hitherto imported, by banning imports or imposing high tariffs on imports, has become one of the popular policies in many developing countries.