eBusiness Weekly
Prosper Ndlovu
Bulawayo Bureau
ZIMBABWE is finalising domestic processes regarding the Tariff Offer to be able to import and export under the historic African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which began official trading last Friday.
The country has already signed and ratified the Agreement Establishing the AfCFTA, affirming commitment to deepening integration and trade within Africa.
However, in order to operationalise the Agreement, member states are required to submit Tariff Offers (schedule of tariff concessions), among other requirements.
The schedule will show the preferential tariffs per year to be applied on imports coming from the African continent, with the aim of eventually eliminating the tariffs.
“Zimbabwe is yet to submit her Tariff Offer to the AfCFTA Secretariat as per the requirements of the Agreement.
“However, domestic processes to finalise the Tariff Offer are at an advanced stage. The work was greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mrs Beatrice Mtetwa, the Acting Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade in emailed responses.
“Once the country submits the Schedule of Tariff Concessions and it is subsequently gazetted, the country will be able to export and import within the AfCFTA at reduced preferential customs duties for products with agreed rules of origin from the African continent.”
Mrs Mtetwa explained that the preferential duties will be favourable as compared to the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ duties, which are payable by third parties or countries that are not party to the AfCFTA.
“It is worth noting that the exchange of tariff concessions between African countries (state parties) will be conditioned by the principle of reciprocity (other counterpart countries also offering the same) in terms of product line coverage and tariff reduction schedules that are aligned with the agreed modalities,” she said.
“The modalities provide guidelines on how members prepare and implement their tariff commitments.”
The operationalisation of the AfCFTA was initially scheduled for July 2020 but had to be delayed following the outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, which hindered timely finalisation of negotiations.
Zimbabwe expects to benefit more from the estimated US$3,4 trillion regional economy and the widened market of about 1,3 billion people.
Increasing exports ties closely with the broad objectives of the recently launched National Development Strategy (NDS 1:2021-2025), which seeks to, among others, “rebalance the economy through increasing the contribution of value-added exports to total exports from nine percent in 2020 to 20 percent in 2025”.
Earlier expert projections have tipped Zimbabwe to be among the top beneficiaries of the expanded regional market.
