US government data shows<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe US exported goods worth $43.8m to Zimbabwe in 2024, up 10.6% from the previous year, while imports were down 41% to $67.8m.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwean political analyst Tendai Mbanje told AFP news agency that the decision would not result in substantial economic benefits for Zimbabwe and would would only benefit the US. <\/p>\n
Prominent Zimbabwean journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin’ono said the president appeared to be trying to “appease” the Trump administration. <\/p>\n
Mnangawa possibly hoped that the administration would lift sanctions imposed on him, but it was a “long shot”, he added on X. <\/p>\n
The US first imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe’s government during the rule of Robert Mugabe after he introduced a land reform programme in 2000 that led to the seizure of white-owned farms, and because of repressive measures taken against the opposition.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration in the US scrapped the sanctions in 2024, replacing them with targeted sanctions on 11 individuals – including Mnangagwa – for “democratic backsliding, human rights abuses, and government corruption”. <\/p>\n
Mnangagwa has previously denied the allegations, describing the sanctions as “illegal and unjustified”. <\/p>\n
Announcing his decision to waive tariffs on US imports, he said Zimbabwe’s focus was on “fostering amicable relations with all nations, and cultivating adversarial relationships with none”.<\/p>\n
“This action underscores our commitment to a framework of equitable trade and enhanced bilateral cooperation,” he added. <\/p>\n
Chin’ono said that Mnangagwa was currently the chairman of the regional bloc Sadc, and should be trying to forge a common response to the US rather than acting unilaterally. <\/p>\n
“When countries face global economic shifts, co-ordinated responses offer better leverage and stability,” he added. <\/p>\n
Lesotho – another southern African state – was hit with 50% tariffs, the highest in the list released by Trump on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Its government said it would send a delegation to the US to negotiate a new deal, and it would look for new markets for its goods. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced he will suspend tariffs on goods imported from the US in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[106],"class_list":{"0":"post-8728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zimbabwe","8":"tag-zimbabwe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}