SOUTH AFRICA wants to improve trading relations with Zimbabwe and might increase duty-free quotas, says the high commissioner to Zimbabwe, Kingsley Mamabolo.
He told a press briefing that Pretoria was looking particularly closely at agricultural products and implied that the cause of most of the friction, textiles and clothing, were being left alone.
The High Commissioner says that the main problems arise from technicalities. We have a few technicalities of a customs nature on both sides and we are addressing these. On the SA side there have been delays in the amendment of the customs schedules, which have to be published and printed, while Zimbabwe has had problems on the certificates of origin.
Economic counsellor at the high commission, Hennie Erasmus, said that Zimbabwe was not fulfilling most of the quotas.
Zimbabwe exporters complain that the volumes are so small it is not worth the trouble.
Peter Dorward, chairman of textile manufacturer Zimbabwe Spinners and Weavers, says the agreement allows Zimbabwe to export a maximum of
800 000 kilograms of
cotton yarn and 3 million square metres of cotton woven cloth a year. On the other hand South African spinners can buy Zimbabwean lint duty-free in any amounts.
By Martin Rushmere
