NEWS

Zimbabwe Has Initiated A Safeguard Investigation Into The Importation Of Doors And Their Frames

Safeguard protection is granted whenever an industry is suffering from serious financial injury, caused by an increase in imports, which was because of unforeseen developments stemming out of the 1994 GATT negotiations, to which South Africa was a signatory.

Safeguard measures are enacted to ensure enough breathing room for the domestic manufacturing industry in distress to adjust and become more competitive, usually within a period of 3-6 years.

For this remedial protection to be effective, these safeguard duties need to be monitored and enforced across the board. However, as part of the Safeguard Agreement, the Safeguard Regulations creates an “Exempted Countries” list. This exemption has shown to provide a safeguard duty-free roue for imports from countries which are developing in nature and from where imports did not originate prior to the imposition of the safeguard duties.

The” circumvention” becomes a problem when the bigger importers switch their sources from imports from the traditional exporting countries like China and Russia, to smaller, developing nations, like Taiwan and Indonesia, effectively bypassing the Safeguard duties in their entirety.
Other WTO member countries would normally act quickly against these changes by removing these “developing nations” quickly once its import volume exceeds the established threshold. No further investigation is required.

In South Africa, the remedial action linked to the imposition of safeguard measures are failing because the officer in charge of this administrative action, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Minister Dave Patel, fails in his duty to authorise these exempted country removals immediately, or at all in some cases. Imports that reduced because of the imposition of the safeguard duties, with a resultant uptick in local production, regained lost ground within a year of the duties being imposed, rendering the safeguard protection completely impotent.

Below is an import chart, providing insight on how imports of Hexagon Nuts, a product protected by safeguard duties have climbed to almost pre-safeguard levels, because of a lack of action by the government to curb imports from developing nations.

Zimbabwe has initiated a Safeguard Investigation into the importation of doors and their frames. The application was launched following an Application by 5 major producers of doors in the country.

The measures under investigation could include duties ranging between 10% and 40%.

Countries exporting doors to Zimbabwe include Australia, Botswana, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Spain, South Africa , Turkey, The UAE, the UK and Zambia.

The Applicant's case alleged serious injury, caused by rapid and significant surge in imports Overall imports grew by 815% between 2022 and 2024. From 2022 to 2023, imports grew by 174%, followed by a staggering 236% rise between 2023 and 2024. This surge has coincided with a substantial decline in domestic production, which saw only a marginal increase from 2022 to 2023 but then plummeted sharply in early 2024.

The Applicant alleges unforeseen developments including:

1. COVID-19: which severely disrupted global supply chains and domestic production, with lasting consequences on Zimbabwe's domestic door manufacturing industry.

2. The depreciation of the South African Rand: which the Applicant alleges has resulted in the exports of doors from South Africa to Zimbabwe significantly cheaper. The currency driven cost advantage of South African rand vs the US dollar used in Zimbabwe has led to an undue competitive advantage for SA door exporters.

3. Shifts in Global Trade and Export Strategies: primarily driven by China’s evolving trade policies and excess production.

If your business exports doors and door frames to Zimbabwe, you could face new duties of 10–40% with submissions due by 17 August 2025.