The Level and Variation of Tariff Rates: A Comparative Analysis of Zimbabwe and South Africa Tariff Regimes

Globalisation and regional integration have brought to the fore the need to benchmark economic policies of nations as a way of identifying and evaluating reasons as to why some countries are more competitive than others. The present paper therefore attempts to compare and contrast the levels and variations between Zimbabwe and South Africa tariff regimes. Zimbabwe is South Africa's major trading partner in the SADC region and besides their membership to SADC, Zimbabwe and South Africa have entered into COMESA and South Africa-EU trade agreements respectively. A comparison of the two countries' tariff schedule with respect to MFN, SADC, COMESA, EU demonstrates that Zimbabwe has higher nominal tariffs.

The comparison of the levels of tariffs of the two nations shows that South Africa has liberalised faster than Zimbabwe under SADC, and that the collection efficiency rate for the former is lower than for the latter. It is fundamental to note that the analysis is restricted to ad valorem duty rates only.