Despite Zimbabwe signing a trade agreement giving it duty free access to the European Union (EU) market in 2009, government is yet to implement the deal because of the headaches it is facing in improving local standard of goods to match international standards.
Source: Zimbabwe Struggles to Meet EU Standards – allAfrica.com July 7, 2016
Despite Zimbabwe signing a trade agreement giving it duty free access to the European Union (EU) market in 2009, government is yet to implement the deal because of the headaches it is facing in improving local standard of goods to match international standards.
Zimbabwe signed an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU in 2009, along with Mauritius, Madagascar and the Seychelles.
The agreement was ratified three years later in 2012, giving the country’s products duty and quota-free access to the vast European market.
Regardless, the agreement is still to take effect due to the absence of a legislative framework and procedures, among other things, to facilitate its implementation.
Philippe Van Damme, the head of the EU delegation to Zimbabwe, said Zimbabwe has now been left out of a treaty which the European bloc recently signed with Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa owing to its failure to implement the agreement.
What it means is that its neighbours are now gaining easy access to the EU market, which has 500 million consumers while Zimbabwe licks wounds suffered as a result of its inaction.
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