… and South African producers are in their sights.
Zimbabwe’s Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) launched a safeguard investigation because of concerns about an “influx of toothpaste imports into the country, which is threatening the viability of the local industry”. The local industry is Merken Investments, the sole local toothpaste producer, who have provided evidence of “serious injury resulting from a substantial increase in toothpaste imports.”
The applicant notes “[t]hese countries are known fore their cost-effective manufacturing, making their products appealing to Zimbabwean importers and further increasing import volumes.”
South Africa exported around 2 containers (R3.3m worth) in the last year, so hardly a massive surge. However, in the nature of these things, if this is not addressed, South Africa will be caught in the net of countries facing safeguard duties which will likely exclude us for the market for the next three years.
We do not yet have a copy of the application, but once we do, we will post an update. Interested parties have 30 days to respond, so time is tight.