Zimbabwe’s President said Saturday he would suspend all tariffs on goods imported from the United States, days after US President Donald Trump levied 18 percent tariffs against the southern African nation.
The mineral-rich country’s main trading partners are the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and China, and its limited exports to the US comprise mainly of tobacco and sugar.
“I will direct the Zimbabwean government to implement a suspension of all tariffs levied on goods originating from the United States,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in a post on X.
This announcement was “intended to facilitate the expansion of American imports within the Zimbabwean market, while simultaneously promoting the growth of Zimbabwean exports destined for the United States,” he said.
The total goods trade between the two countries amounted to $111.6 million in 2024, according to US government data.
The relationship between Zimbabwe and the US has been marked by decades-long pressure campaigns against former ruler Robert Mugabe since the early 2000s.
Harare has regularly blamed US sanctions for the disastrous economic crisis that has afflicted the country for more than two decades, and has moved away from the West, strengthening economic ties with the UAE and China.
Washington last year abolished the former sanctions programme but imposed targeted sanctions on Mnangagwa and other senior leaders, citing rights abuses and corruption.
Mnangagwa at the time said the sanctions imposed by then President Joe Biden were “illegal and unjustified”.
Saturday’s suspension of tariffs on US goods “carries significant negative implications for Zimbabwe and its relations within the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” said Tendai Mbanje, a Zimbabwean political analyst at the Johannesburg-based African Centre for Governance.
With Zimbabwe currently chairing the 16-nation group, the unilateral move “might be perceived as prioritising relations with the US over regional solidarity”, Mbanje told AFP.
Given the limited trade between the two countries, it may “not yield substantial economic benefits for Zimbabwe” and “only benefit the US”, he said.
Prominent journalist and activist Hopewell Chin’ono said the announcement was a “knee-jerk reaction”, suggesting it could be an effort by Mnangagwa to “appease Trump” and get the sanctions removed.
“It does not make much sense for Mnangagwa to prioritise appeasing the United States in this way,” he wrote on X. “Zimbabwe’s isolated response could expose it to unintended economic consequences or trade retaliation,” he said.
