Effects Of Imposing Import Tariffs On A Country’s Economic Growth-a Case Study On Malawi

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether there is any relationship betweenimposition of import tariffs and economic growth in developing countries. Thus, this paperaims at empirically and theoretically analysing the effects that imposition of import tariffs haveon economic growth in Malawi over the period of1982–2011. This relationship is examinedusing the Autoregressive Moving Average (ARIMA) model which will test the effect of animplemented import tariff policy on GDP growth.The Autoregressive Moving Average regression results reveal that there is a relationshipbetween imposed import tariffs and economic growth in Malawi, that is, a reduction in theaverage import tariff rate leads to a rise in GDP growth. These results strongly support the role,import trade can play in Malawi’s economic development. This means that by adopting goodimport tariff policies, Malawi will eventually boost domestic production hence the GDPgrowth.