This summary was prepared by Whitehouse & Associates for the African Resource Network.

South Africa and Zimbabwe have a bilateral trade agreement.

The Zimbabwean agreement has been fraught with difficulties since its inception. An initial agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1964 provided for preferential rates of duty, rebates and quotas on certain goods traded between the two countries. Following a series of disagreements over an increase in South African duties on textiles, consensus on a new trade agreement was reached in August 1996. In terms of the new agreement, tariff and quota levels on textile and agricultural imports into South Africa will be lowered.

Zimbabwe is consistently South Africa’s largest export market in Africa although the past two years have seen a reduction in this trade as internal conditions in this country continue to deteriorate. Trade with Zimbabwe has decreased from 27% of total exports to Africa to 23% and until conditions improve, this trend is likely to continue. In the long term this is probably a positive for South Africa as there is a need to diversify South Africas export markets in Africa.