People’s Party (PP) president Joyce Banda has described the current trade war between Malawi and neighbouring Tanzania as very unfortunate, saying it is affecting a lot of women who do cross-border businesses.
Speaking at Chikowi Primary School in Zomba district where she conducted a political rally, the former president said the reciprocal ban from Tanzania will hit Malawians hard.
“Recently, Malawi announced that relief maize would be imported from Tanzania. Later, Malawi announced a ban on Tanzanian goods entering the country, meaning we cannot import bananas, chicken eggs, maize, and fertilizer. I don’t know where we will be producing fertilizer.
“In retaliation, Tanzania has also enforced a ban on Malawian agricultural imports. These include fertilizer, maize, and even vehicles carrying these goods from Tanzania. These vehicles cannot enter Malawi, and a lot of goods have already rotted. I have been in business for a long time; we don’t play with business. We need to follow the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) guidelines, which promote the easy movement of goods from one country to another,” she said
AfCFTA is the world’s largest free trade area, created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. It aims to facilitate intra-African trade, boost economic integration, and attract investment across the continent. The agreement was signed in 2018 and officially launched in 2019, with trading starting on January 1, 2021.
Banda added; “if we talk about cross-border trade, I have been involved for several years. In 1994, I went to Chitipa where I found businesswomen struggling to export their goods to Tanzania through normal channels. I intervened on their behalf, and things changed. Now, we can’t destroy that”.
The ban, announced by Tanzania’s Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe, is a retaliatory measure against trade restrictions imposed by Malawi and South Africa on Tanzanian agricultural products, including maize flour, rice, ginger, bananas, and maize.
Tanzania has also halted the transit of agricultural goods through its territory to landlocked Malawi and suspended fertilizer exports to the country, further straining trade relations.
