More goods to be added to imports restriction list

THE Government is waiting for the industry to bring a list of more goods and products to be placed under imports restriction, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said it was entirely on industry to provide a list of products they intended to be placed under imports restriction by the Ministry's Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016:-Control of Goods (Open General Import Licence).

Last month the ministry placed 36 goods under SI 64 of 2016 and these include bottled water, mayonnaise, salad cream, peanut butter, jam, mahewu, canned fruits, vegetables, pizza, yoghurts, flavoured milks, dairy juice blends, ice creams, cultured milk, cheese, coffee creamers, camphor creams, white petroleum jellies, body creams and plastic pipes.

"The whole list (of goods to be placed under imports restrictions) came from the private sector. It's not us (Government), so it's entirely up to them to come forward and tell us which products they want to be included on the SI 64 of 2016. These are things that come under consideration and we discuss with the private sector," said Minister Bimha.

He said this on the sidelines of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Annual Congress in Bulawayo on Friday last week.

Recently captains of industry told Sunday Business that they were pushing to include more goods to be put under imports restrictions.

"Other companies that are not on SI 64 of 2016 have already come up and said, look we are able to meet national demand. So there is a lot of companies that are producing products locally that are able to meet demand and that would like to be on that list of restrictions as we continue our import substitution programme or restricting our imports so that we reduce our current deficit. We are also still compiling the list for submission to Ministry of Industry (and Commerce) but these include ox-drawn ploughs and implements that can be manufactured locally," CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo was quoted as having said.

Minister Bimha said he was not aware of the products, which the industry wanted to be put under import restrictions.

"It's something that we will consider but I wouldn't know which products they are talking about and the issue is why they didn't come because it's not us who produce the list. So I will also have to ask why they didn't bring it in the first place, they have to justify because we don't want to put products for the sake of putting, it needs to be justified," he said.

Captains of industry argue that the SI 64 of 2016 would stimulate local demand towards locally manufactured goods and enhance capacity utilisation as well as improve industrialisation and employment creation.