ZIMBABWEAN exporters have been urged to explore new markets and boost exports through the United Kingdom’s Eastern and Southern Africa Economic Partnership Agreement (UK ESA EPA).
The agreement offers significant opportunities for trade expansion, according to Natasha Stotesbury, head of trade policy at the British High Commission in South Africa.
“The UK has signed 33 agreements in the Pacific, Caribbean and African countries, including with Zimbabwe,” Stotesbury said at a Zimbabwe-UK Business Forum hosted by ZimTrade in Harare yesterday.
“The agreements show the countries that are eligible for the UK developing countries trading scheme.”
This comes as Zimbabwe has been working on a re-engagement initiative to improve relations with Western countries.
“Our economic partnership is a development-focused free trade agreement that stimulates investment, supply chains, productivity and competition,” Stotesbury said. “Our agreement provides immediate, permanent and duty-free access to the UK market for all developing countries. It provides certainty and is a positive signal to foreign investors.
“We have the exclusion of certain goods from liberalisation in Zimbabwe, which helps protect the local industry from imports.”
Stotesbury also pointed out the importance of the agreement's rules of origin, which are more flexible than standard trade agreements.
- Zim granted duty-free access to UK markets
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This allows Zimbabwean businesses to source inputs or process goods in other countries while still qualifying for duty-free access to the UK market
“The rules of origin help prevent inter-digital trade. The committee that our agreement sets up helps create a living agreement that benefits businesses and other stakeholders in the region,” Stotesbury said.
“To sell a product, you need to have a cause of origin, which means there are rules about where a product is manufactured.
“Our trade agreement has more flexible rules of origin than standard trade agreements, which provides flexibility for businesses in Zimbabwe to source inputs or conduct processing in other countries and still qualify for duty-free access to the UK market.”
Looking ahead, she said the agreement would continue evolving.
“We have already discussed improvements to the rules of origin, and we are looking to deepen some of the chapters, such as services and investment, to further support trade and investment,” she said.
ZimTrade CEO Allan Majuru said some of the export opportunities that were dominating trade between Zimbabwe and other countries could be implemented through the agreement.
“There is a massive opportunity with our coffee, flowers, vegetables, fruits and nuts. I think we have a lot of commodities like fruits, mangoes, guavas, and avocados that are in the rural areas which are not being fully utilised,” he said.
“Opportunity and capacity are there but we just need to have consistency. Previously, I think we used to be happy when we brought big watermelons; now, they prefer the rock melon. So, we now need to ensure we produce the right commodities.”
