Zimbabwe for Multilateral Trade

It is against this background that the Zimbabwean government, as part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries, has been engaging the European Union (EU) with a view to doing away with unfair trade imbalances through the EU’s proposed economic partnership agreements (EPAs). The Zimbabwean government says it supports the ongoing EPA negotiations between the ACP and EU countries but also supports the efforts of Brazil and India to level the playing field in international trade in the WTO.

‘‘We have bilateral trade agreements with European countries but when it comes to international trade issues we will support the multilateral route, which is why we hold memberships to the various international bodies. We do not believe that the bilateral route will not take us very far in international trade,’’ said Mpofu.

The government also expressed its views about negotiating as representative of a bloc-the SADC- rather than as an individual country, which would give them better bargaining powers. The deputy trade Minister said that they preferred a collective approach to trade issues. It would help against the policy of the EU to divide and discriminate among the countries and stop them from choosing any favorable partner from among the negotiating countries.

Like other developing countries, the Zimbabwean government is also worried about the issue of agricultural subsidies in large markets such as the US and EU. Zimbabwe is one of the African countries which have benefited from preferential trade agreements between the ACP and the EU over the years. The Lome agreements allowed unrestricted access to most of Zimbabwe’s exports to the EU, including products such as beef and flowers.

The EU and the ACP’s Cotonou trade agreement of 2000 was ratified by Zimbabwe’s parliament on November 15 2002. One of the objectives of the agreement is the eradication of poverty to enable the creation of stable economies. The ACP countries and the EU also decided to act together and negotiate the EPAs to better integrate ACP countries into the global economy.

Zimbabwe introduced export processing zones (EPZs) as a way of boosting the country’s export earnings. The country’s export earnings have been poor for many years due to the worsening political crisis. Under the EPZ programme, exporting companies are given various incentives such as a five-year tax holiday and a low import duty of 15 percent at first, to be replaced by duty free importation of capital goods and machinery after a set period. Some of the farms in the EPZ were acquired under the controversial land reform programme in 2000.

Jabusile Shumba, a Harare-based researcher who has attended World Social Forum (WSF) meetings, emphasized the need for an all African programme  to achieve a growth path like its Asian counterparts.