The Periscope Report trade related news round-up from a variety of sources for 10th April 2017.
[Zimbabwe] Govt to act on illegal imports
GOVERNMENT says an inter ministerial task force set up to probe issues around the influx of illegal imports has come up with and approved recommendations to resolve the problem. Interventions will entail use of hi-tech gadgets at ports of entry and surveillance around particular radius around border posts. Government also put in place a border efficiency management committee to minimise such issues. Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Mike Bimha said in an interview last week that Government was fully aware of the problem of illegal imports and was addressing the issue. This comes after the Government came up with Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 in July last year with a view to restrict entry of products that could be manufactured locally to give local firms latitude to retool and increase production. Dr Bimha said the Government was cognisant of the fact that some individuals would find illegal means to smuggle certain goods following measures to restrict their import. “It is an area that we cannot address as a ministry because of the need to involve as many other ministries as possible, Government agencies and stakeholders as well, so that collectively we can address this issue,” he said
[Zimbabwe] No exports, no more bond notes: Chinamasa
FINANCE minister Patrick Chinamasa last week said no additional bond notes would be released into the market to ease the cash crunch, saying the only solution lay in increasing exports. Chinamasa made the remarks in Parliament after legislators pleaded with Treasury to release the entire $200 million support secured from Afreximbank to hedge the bond notes. “I do not support that we should issue all the bond notes up to $200 million into the market,” he said. “We made it very clear that the bond notes are only issued relative to exports – no exports, no bond notes in the market, and we are going to stick by that because they are coming in as an incentive to exports,” he said. Mutasa Central MP Trevor Saruwaka (MDC-T) claimed people in the Diaspora were now discouraged from sending remittances because instead of giving out the 5% incentive, financial institutions were paying 3%, resulting in people being defrauded of $2 from every $100 deposited by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
[Zimbabwe] Produce more to counter imports: Mangudya
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya says the country needs to produce more to substitute imports and also boost exports in order to earn more foreign currency. Zimbabwe is a victim of excessive imports with average annual trade deficit of more than $2 billion, according to official statistics. The trend has been blamed for suffocating viability of local companies, draining scarce foreign currency from the economy and loss of jobs. Dr Mangudya said in an interview that the key to resuscitating the economy lies in revitalising the productive sector so as to reduce imports. He said the expected bumper harvest this cropping season as well as increased output from the mining sector, were key in turning around the economy this year. The RBZ boss said Zimbabwe’s economy was on the mend and heading towards major transformation mainly driven by the agriculture sector and mining.
Zim must learn from SA’s export strategy
Zimbabwe is in need of growing and diversifying its exports so that it can generate sufficient liquidity to propel the economy. The real challenge for Zimbabwe is how the country can come up with a proper framework aimed at driving exports. In as much we have other frameworks enunciated in the National Trade Policy, we need framework in the form of an integrated national export strategy. Against this background, I found it fit to showcase the South African Integrated National Export Strategy (INES) so that we can draw lessons from the same. South Africa sometime around 2014 came up with an INES which was responding to the country’s to declining exports to world share. The INES was developed with a motto: “Excellence into Emerging & Traditional Markets: A strategic framework and action plan to grow and diversify South Africa’s exports”. See my report on Zimbabwe’s private sector advanced efforts in producing an NES – Zimbabwe’s multi-sector driven National Exports Strategy takes shape, likely to become official by October 2017