China's Comments and Questions on Zimbabwe's WTO Trade Policy Review

Simon Lester -

The WTO conducted its trade policy review for Zimbabwe from September 30 to October 2. The minutes of the meeting and the questions and answers from other WTO Members were released recently.

China offered the following statement at the meeting (WTO Doc WT/TPR/M/398):

4.57. China and Zimbabwe enjoy fruitful bilateral relationship. Recent years have seen continuous growth in bilateral trade and investment between China and Zimbabwe. According to China’s statistics, the two-side trade in goods amounted to US$1.34 billion, which was an increase of 0.58% from 2018 to 2019. The total amount of China’s investment into Zimbabwe reached USD 1.89 billion by the year of 2018, and the investment flow from China to Zimbabwe reached USD 43.8 million in 2019.

4.58. Not only in trade, China also try its best to make contributions to the process of industrialization and modernization of Zimbabwe including human resource training and establishment of manufactories and provide assistance on social development such as building hospitals and schools. Zimbabwe is also one of the signatories of Belt and Road Initiative which will provide more broad and in-depth cooperation between China and Zimbabwe in social and economic development. We are confident that the business and people-to-people links between our two countries will be further strengthened.

China also asked a number of questions (WT/TPR/M/398/Add.1) of Zimbabwe, including questions on the following:

  • foreign exchange control measures related to tobacco planting and tobacco leaf exports
  • Traditional Chinese Medicines
  • the adoption of standards as technical regulations
  • the mandate of the Competition and Tariff Commission, procedures for merger assessment and approval
  • plans to accede to the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement
  • programs aimed at improving trademark protection
  • restrictions on market access for foreign investment in civil aviation transport services
  • Zimbabwe’s main positions on WTO reform
  • environmental impact assessment of mining projects
  • implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture
  • laws and regulations related to environmental protection that foreign investors need to follow when investing in infrastructure projects
  • and export-led industrialisation and trade policy adopted in the Special Economic Zones