Levious Chiukira on Customs and Trade

What is a bonded warehouse? A bonded warehouse is a place, a building or other secured area in which dutiable goods may be stored for after importation or manufacture without payment of duties due to customs. In simple terms, it is a duty-free zone or area which has been granted the rights to store goods waiting final clearance by customs.  Bonded warehouses provide specialized storage services such as deep freeze or bulk liquid storage, commodity processing, and coordination with transportation, and are an integral part of the global supply chain. There are basically two types of bonded warehouses namely wet and dry. Wet bonded warehouses are the ones in which alcohol and tobacco may be stored. Dry storage are for any other goods as approved by the Commissioner. The main objective of using a bonded warehouse is to keep all materials at stock, till the time they are to be used, sold or transported to somewhere else in the country or outside for exports. How does a bonded wa...

  The introduction of the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) brought joy and hope to both domestic and foreign investors who had endured the tiresome and bureaucratic processes experienced in the past. With the promulgation of the ZIDA Act, it was a signal from the government that the days of the honeymoon were over to unnecessary bottlenecks, which resulted in the loss of potential investments in the country. The ZIDA comes when Zimbabwe is recovering from an economic meltdown which has resulted in capital flight, downsizing and closure of formal business. The same epoch also resulted in the mushrooming of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which took advantage of the gaps and created employment for laid-off workers. There have been calls for policies and regulations to support the growth of the SME sector, and research has shown that they contribute to over 50% of the country’s GDP. What is lacking in Zimbabwe has been having the right policies that assist in the...

  Recovery cost on infrastructure becoming non-tariff barrier to trade case of Zimbabwe Beitbridge Border Post Upgrade.   From a global perspective, movement of commercial trade across the globe has witnessed a well-coordinated transport network through economic liberalization making it possible for firms in the industrial and retail sector to register tremendous growth, with reference to the developed countries (Hanif and Kaluwa 2016). The efforts at global level have been the eradication of both tariff and non-tariff barriers with the implementation of World Trade Organisation Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA). The major thrust has been on eradication of mainly non-tariff barriers which have continued to resurface in different forms regardless of the efforts being put. The major cost drive in Africa has remained related to transport and logistics which are high as compared to other regions. Of late the dilapidated railways systems have put pressure on road infras...

  Debunking the informality of Cross-Border Trade (CBT) in Southern Africa   The article seeks to debunk the common usage of the word ‘informal’   in relation to cross-border activities carried out by the native Africans across the borders.   the author introduces the need to approach cross-border trade activities from a constructivist view of formality and recognize it as a formal sector. This has been necessitated by continued labels put on this trade despite its positives to the region as a whole. To   Devey & Valoidia   (2009)when studying cross-border trade formality and informality should be viewed as a continuum and not as exclusive dichotomies The CBT involves the movement of the physical movement of not only goods but also people across borders.   Cross-Border Trading has remained an important form of trade in many developing countries. CBT according to studies assisted in the cushioning of the African continent from the global financial...

  No Women No AfCFTA. Whose integration is it anyway? Africa, which covers approximately 30 million square kilometers, is the second-largest continent in the world. In 2010, its gross domestic product was approximately $1.6 trillion, compared with the U.S.’s $14.5 trillion GDP which is even three times smaller in geographical size. Given the challenges with continued failure in unification and development across the cross, the African leaders agreed to form the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from the Pan Africanism perspective in a bid to come up with the Africa we want.   As an affirmation of their commitment to support Africa’s new path for attaining inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development African heads of state and government signed the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the formation of the OAU /AU in May 2013. The declaration marked the re-dedication of Africa towards the attainment of the Pan Af...

What is a bonded warehouse? A bonded warehouse is a place, a building or other secured area in which dutiable goods may be stored for after importation or manufacture without payment of duties due to customs. In simple terms, it is a duty-free zone or area which have been granted the rights to store goods waiting final clearance by customs. In Zimbabwe the bonded warehouses are managed under the Customs Excise Act Chapter (23:02) as read with the Customs and Excise General Regulations Act. Section 68 of the C&E Act as read with section 71 of the C & E regulations states that any person or business interested in operating a bonded warehouse shall make an application to the Commissioner of customs in writing submitting details and location of the bonded warehouse. The application shall be accompanied by a guarantee from a surety who can be a commercial bank or a registered insurance company. The surety shall be bonded to the customs commissioner to the total amount of duties for ...

    The direct trade participation of SMEs in developing countries is not in line with their importance at the domestic level. Compared to large firms, however, few SMEs export – direct exports representing just 3% of total SME manufacturing sales, compared to 14% for large enterprises (World Trade Organization, 2016). The process of exporting goods and services is a mammoth task which requires investments in human resources and capital. This has discouraged many SMEs. Those who choose to take up the risk are faced with non-tariff barriers (NTBs) starting from internal to regional level.   Trade facilitation is key for the success of SMEs exports and this should start at national level building up to the global. Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximize efficiency while safeguarding leg...