Zidera: Is Zimbabwe under sanctions or not?

Zimbabwe faces Zidera which was signed by US president George W. Bush into law in December 2001, allegedly to promote democracy and economic recovery in Zimbabwe.

The question which arises of course is: what exactly is wrong with this sanctions law imposed against Zimbabwe?

The answer is that the contentious clauses within Zidera that prejudice ordinary Zimbabweans are to be found in section 4 (c ) of Zidera which specifically compels or coerces US executive directors of each international financial institution to oppose and vote against, (i) any extension by that institution any loan, credit, or guarantee to the government of Zimbabwe (this has invariably been interpreted to include even loans to Zim institutions) , (ii) that US executives must oppose and vote against any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the government of Zimbabwe to the US or any international financial institution.

These are the two injurious clauses that tend to prejudice Zimbabweans. Anyone who has ever sat on a credit committee of any international bank will tell you that because of these two clauses, Zimbabwe together with its institutions and people are deemed to be under sanctions hence no loan can be extended to them because that will raise the eerie and ire of the US government and attract severe punishment to whosoever breaches that directive.

Arising from the foregoing, one can see that the contentious clauses specifically places Zimbabwe as a country on the sanctions list simply because international transactions are conducted in US$s. American banks like Bank of New York, JP Morgan Chase etc etc are the clearing banks for any US$ denominated transactions implying that Zim will invariably find itself on the wrong side of US executives as directed by Zidera.

So in simple terms, de facto (as a matter of fact) and de jure (formally) Zimbabwe is indeed under sanctions in terms of Zidera.

Ndlovu is an award winning economist and central banker.