ONE determining factor for market access is that each product under AGOA is subject to the normal import rules and regulations.

Different United States regulatory agencies are responsible for handling imports into that country with products falling under agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting being subject to inspection by the US department of agriculture (USDA). Food products are subject to random inspection by the Food and Drug Agency (FDA).

The US customs is responsible for clearing all imports into the American market and enforcing tariffs.

Inspectors from the animal and plant health inspection service (APHIS) assess the risk of importing specific food and plant items. The products are subject to APHIS import requirements that depend both on product and country of origin.

APHIS inspectors also check seeds exported into the US market to ensure that they are accurately labeled and free of noxious weeds. For instance, a specialist from the USD visited Zambia recently and carried out the scientific research on six vegetables in conjunction with the Zambia Export Growers Association (ZEGA).

Approval is being awaited from the USD before Zambia can start exporting the inspected products. These include baby corn, chilly, green beans, asparagus and magnut.

The ëportage conceptí is the trade initiative adopted by France in which large firms of that country are encouraged to assist entrepreneurs from developing countries such as Zambia enter the French market with less difficulties.

On regional integration, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have created more trade opportunities for member countries as they focus more on developing their natural and human resources to the mutual benefit of their people.

Comesa is the regional grouping of 19 African nations that are focusing their attention on trade in goods and services, investment promotion and facilitation, infrastructure development, electronic commerce as well as peace and security. Member states consist of Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Congo DR, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Comesa Free Trade Area was launched in 2000 with an undertaking by nine (9) member states to facilitate easy market access between and among themselves. These include Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Zambian exports to the Comesa region have been increasing marginally mainly as a result of other member states applying restrictive non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on its products. The NTBs being applied include minimum labelling and quality standards.

Latest AGOA Trade Data on AGOA.info

Click here to view a sector profile of Zambia’s bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated into total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.

For more about AGOA click here .

Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: