Mozambican Minister raises concerns over Malawi, SA, Zimbabwe’s trade restrictions

Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa – the countries are accused of creating administrative difficulties to prevent Mozambican companies from exporting their products under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol.

The Minister of Industry and Commerce in Mozambique, Ragendra de Sousa has blamed South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi for raising the difficulties saying "Mozambique is considering retaliating." "We have this weapon with us which is our geographical location (...) any day my border colleague will catch malaria and not open the border 3 days," he said in a conversation to Verdade.

A soft drink brand from Mozambique began exporting to Malawi in 2016 under the Trade Protocol of the SADC. It was able to position itself in the local market due to low price as an alternative to soft drinks produced in the neighboring country. But the Malawian Bureau of Standards imposed a ban on the imports of drinks on the health grounds in October same year with a claim that the drinks were having high level of citric acid and sodium benzoate. The Mozambican Minister Ragendra de Sousa said that it violated the protocol set by SADC.

However, the Mozambican manufacturer Yaafico Industrial, which prepares the soft drinks, rejected the claims despite Malawi blamed that it did not meet the standards laid down by the Malawian authorities. The Malawi Bureau of Standards lifted the ban after the manufacturer complied with the bureau's requirement on acid levels, but according to Sousa, the ban was lifted the company proved their drink was safe to drink, and after the Mozambican government intervened.

On the other hand, he further said that products like pasta, tubes and domestic beer are confronting "gimmicks" to enter Zimbabwe and South Africa. He said that he directly discussed with Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa about the bad practices in his country (Zimbabwe).

"When nothing seemed to work, my countryman (alluding to the border guards between Mozambique and Malawi) forgot to open the border for 2 hours, then raining calls and sending delegations," he said, which is a sort of warning to South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

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