Even though it is landlocked, Zambia trades with 174 of the 195 countries in the world.According to the World Bank, at the HS6 digit level, 1 974 products are exported to 118 countries and 3 895 products are imported from 174 countries.Zambia has duty- and quota-free access to the EU market, under the “Everything but Arms” (EBA) programme, and is eligible for benefits under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act.It is a member of SADC and Comesa and an AfCFTA signatory.Zambia’s top trading partners in 2021 were: South Africa with a share of 31% ($2.01 billion) China with a share of 12.5% ($810 million) India with a share of 6.26% ($ 4 02 m) United Arab Emirates with a share of 5.65% ($363m) Democratic Republic of Congo with a share of 4.62% ($297m) Seychelles with a share of 4.26% ($274m) Japan with a share of 3.53% ($227 m) USA with a share of 3.03% ($1 95m) United Kingdom with a share of 2.79% ($179m) Namibia with a share of 1.83% ($118m)According to the Bank of Zambia Direction of Trade Report, First Quarter 2023, the top 10 export destinations this year have been, in order, Switzerland, DRC, China, Singapore, South Africa, Zimbabwe, “other”, Malawi, Namibia and Hong Kong.Import partners, in order, were South Africa, China, United Arab Emirates, “other”, Singapore, Japan, USA, Congo DR, and Mauritius. The table below shows how Zambia compares with its direct neighbours on key metrics. Economic Freedom comes from the 2023 Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage organisation.GDP and inf lation figures were provided by the International Monetary Fund.Merchandise exports are measured FOB for 2021.
