News:Zimbabwe Bans A Host Of Goods From Being Imported...

<vote /> The Government of Zimbabwe have banned the importation of a number of goods (seemingly with immediate effect as word has reached us that there was chaos at Beitbridge Border post where travellers were caught unawares).

Regulations were gazetted under Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 on Friday 17 June 2016 by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce with the Minister of the respective Ministry, Mike Bimha stating that:

"the move was meant to support our local industry. The Buy Zimbabwe campaign held a summit in June last year aimed at promoting the purchase of local products and services saying this would enable local businesses to grow, thereby encouraging economic growth and job creation. Buying locally manufactured goods; whether it involves purchasing machinery worth millions or even just a T-shirt; begins a cycle in which you re-invest money into the local economy, instead of spending it on an imported product and sending the money outbound."

Goods banned include:

• Coffee creamers (Cremora),
• Baked beans
• Potato crisps,
• Cereals,
• Bottled water,
• Mayonnaise,
• Salad cream,
• Peanut butter,
• Jams,
• Maheu,
• Canned fruits and vegetables,
• Pizza base,
• Yoghurts,
• Flavoured milks,
• Dairy juice blends,
• Ice-creams,
• Cultured milk
• Cheese.
• Camphor creams,
• White petroleum jellies and body creams,
• Wheelbarrows (flat pan and concrete pan wheelbarrows),
• Structures and parts of structures of iron or steel (bridges and bridges section, lock gates, towers, lattice masts, roofs, roofing frameworks, doors, windows and their frames and threshold for doors, shutters, balustrade, pillars and columns) and plates, rods, angles, shapes section and tubes prepared for use in structures of iron and steel ware, are also on the list of the restricted products.
• Plastic pipes and fittings,
• Flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel (of a width of 600mm or more),
• Clad plated or coated and corrugated steel roofing sheets.
• Furniture,
• Flash doors,
• Beds,
• Wardrobes,
• Dining room suites,
• Office furniture,
• Second-hand tyres (all re-treaded or used pneumatic tyres of rubber),
• Baler and binder twine,
• Fertilizers (urea and ammonium nitrate),
• Compounds and blends,
• Tile adhesive and tylon,
• Shoe polish,
• Synthetic hair products
• Tissue wading
• Woven fabrics of cotton

In Mid-2015, the Minister was quoted as saying that the country was importing things like toothpicks and water and this was unsustainable and a committee was to be setup to establish what items were to be banned from being imported. This announcement looks to be the findings of that committee.

Though the ban is understandable with the country having a huge trade deficit, we're not sure whether Zimbabwe has an industry to manufacture the above mentioned goods and this will just reduce the tax benefits the country was benefiting from the sale of these goods.

Interesting times lay ahead.

Read the full article on Herald here

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