LOCAL TRADERS BEMOAN UNFAIR TREATMENT FROM NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

LOCAL TRADERS BEMOAN UNFAIR TREATMENT FROM NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

The business community has bemoaned the unfair trade practices taking place at border posts, where some countries that have signed trade agreements with Zambia are not honouring them.

The community has cited Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Angola, among others, as countries which are not honouring these treaties, hence subjecting them to harsh treatment and surcharges.

This came to light during a town hall meeting last week which was held under the theme “Focusing on unlocking Zambia’s economic potential through enhanced import, export and border process efficiencies”, organised by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.

Currently, Zambia has signed several trade agreements with other countries in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), among others, in an effort to promote trade facilitation.

During the meeting, Trade Kings Group engineer and spokesperson Ernest Mande called on Government to move in now and tackle the issue of unfair trade.

“Currently, as a country we follow and respect these trade agreements, but our neighbouring countries do not,” Mr Mande said. He said the group is subjected to be charged tariffs in Tanzania through the Nakonde One Stop Border Post.

“In Tanzania, we are paying a number of charges at entry point.

When we go to Malawi, we suffer the same thing, in Zimbabwe we are targeted and asked to pay value added tax (VAT). We cannot fully export because of such. “

We have a similar case in Angola where we are charged a number of prohibitive taxes as they are saying that they want to grow their economy,” Mr Mande said.- Zambia Daily Mail