Zimbabwe is considering boycotts against the Pretoria=20 regime again — though for different reasons this time.=20 Iden Wetherell reports from Harare
Should Zimbabwe impose sanctions on South Africa? More=20 than a year after democratic elections in the republic,=20 it may seem a strange suggestion — but Zimbabwean=20 manufacturers, expressing growing resentment that terms=20 of trade between the two countries unfairly favour=20 South African exporters, are calling for tough=20 retaliatory measures.
Zimbabwe is awash with South African goods.=20
South African breakfast cereals and fruit juices crowd=20 supermarket shelves, sleek new South African-made=20 vehicles hog the country’s roads and fast-food=20 franchises with familiar names from south of the border=20 jostle for space in suburban shopping malls.=20
In Zimbabwe’s hitherto self-sufficient manufacturing=20 sector, South African machinery, chemicals and plastics=20 are aggressively pushing aside local products.
When the Harare government recently divested some of=20 its shares in the giant Delta Corporation which=20 operates hotels and breweries, South African Breweries=20 snapped them up, returning to occupy turf it lost at=20 independence in 1980.
Black businessmen claim they were outmanoeuvred in the=20
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean textilers and exporters in the=20 agricultural and mining sectors are fuming that their=20 products face insuperable tariff hurdles on the South=20 African market.
Although the balance of trade has favoured South Africa=20 for decades, in the past three years a floodtide of=20 South African goods has swamped local manufacturers.=20 The South African Foreign Trade Organisation [Safto]=20 estimates South Africa enjoyed a trade surplus of R1,5- billion with Zimbabwe last year.
Zimbabwe has desperately been attempting to renegotiate=20 the 1964 trade agreement which provided access for=20 Zimbabwean products to the South African market.=20
When it expired in 1992, South Africa removed its long- standing suspension of duties on Zimbabwean textiles,=20 providing a body blow to one of Zimbabwe’s post- independence success stories. Thousands of workers have=20 been laid off at some of the country’s best-known=20 textiles companies.
South African clothing manufacturers have lobbied=20 against concessions to Zimbabwe’s textiles industry on=20 the grounds that imports would jeopardise their=20 position. But Zimbabwean exporters claim that their=20 place in South African clothing stores has been taken=20 by a flood of imports from the Far East, rather than by=20 any increase in demand for South African products.
When President Robert Mugabe visited South Africa last=20 year, he secured an assurance from President Nelson=20 Mandela that their respective trade ministers would=20 hammer out an agreement on the vexed question of=20 tariffs. But little progress appears to have been made=20 since then.=20
Zimbabwe’s motor-manufacturing sector is particularly=20 shrill in its complaints about unfair trade. The=20 proliferation of South African-made vehicles, including=20 the ubiquitous minibus taxis, has put the squeeze on=20 local assemblers.=20
At a time when Zimbabwe has abandoned its export=20 incentive scheme and reduced tariffs in line with=20 market reforms, local car makers point to South=20 Africa’s General Export Incentive Scheme, which offers=20 South African vehicle exporters up to 50 percent of=20 export value in credits and duty drawbacks, a scheme=20 which will continue for a further eight years under=20 World Trade Organisation concessions.
“The trade game is being played with different rules=20 for the two teams,” protests Bulawayo-based economist=20 Eric Bloch.=20
Given South Africa’s intractability on questions of=20 access, he says, “Zimbabwe may have no alternative but=20 to react in a manner similar to the United States’=20 stance against Japan: imposing heavy tariffs directed=20 against specific South African products.”=20
Zimbabwe absorbs 28 percent of South Africa’s exports=20 to Africa. There are growing fears in Harare that,=20 unless countered, skewed patterns of trade may force=20 Zimbabwe into an expanded Southern African Customs=20
Chairman of South African commodities group Market=20 Link, Pieter de Wet, told Zimbabwean cattle farmers=20 last week that Zimbabwe should think about joining up.=20 But the call has only confirmed the fears of local=20
“We must keep our heads, whatever the pressures,” said=20 Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries acting chief=20 executive Joe Foroma. “If we erode our industrial base,=20 we will never catch up again. We do not want to become=20 a commercial shop window in an extended customs union.”=20
The prospect of de-industrialisation is very real.=20 Zimbabwean manufacturers now pay more in duties on=20 imported raw materials than South African companies pay=20 to bring in their finished goods.=20
In the UDI years and under the post-independence=20 command economy, Zimbabwe built up a resilient=20 manufacturing sector supplying virtually all the=20 country’s needs. That is now under serious threat.
The perception that Zimbabwe is the victim of unfair=20 trade practices by its powerful southern neighbour is=20 likely to cloud relations between the two countries –=20 an irony, given Mugabe’s sacrifices in boycotting the=20 previous regime in Pretoria.
But Zimbabwean consumers are mostly unsympathetic to=20 the pleas of their manufacturing sector for support.=20
“How can these people bleat and expect any sympathy=20 from us?” one Zimbabwean wrote to the local press=20 recently, voicing a common complaint about local car=20 assemblers. “For how many years did these firms treat=20 us with absolute contempt because we had no choice?”