from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – RECENTLY, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia signed a landmark trade cooperation agreement to facilitate the development of the value chain in the electric battery and clean energy sector.
The signing of the agreement some three months ago, attended by Presidents Felix Tshisekedi and Haikande Hichilema, was lauded even at the level of the United Nations, considering both African countries are home to about 80 percent of minerals required for production of electric car batteries.
At that event, they also signed a co-operation agreement to facilitate cross-border trade under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc.
Three months later, relations between the two countries have become hostile over trade issues.
At the end of July, DRC banned imports of beer and non-alcoholic drinks from its southern neighbour.
The Congolese government said the restriction, to run for 12 months, was in a bid to cushion its local suppliers from external competition.
This has been a major blow to Zambia which relies on such exports to expand its economy from an over-reliance on copper.
Zambian took retaliatory action, announcing multiple closure of border crossing points between the two countries.
Border points between Zambia’s Northwestern and Copperbelt provinces with DRC’s Haut-Katanga Province remained closed as of Sunday.
Officials closed crossing points to Kasumbalesa, Sakania and Kipushi in DRC on Saturday after Tshisekedi’s government banned the imports from Zambia.
“It is unclear when the border will reopen,” a source said.
Experts forecast disruptions to cross-border transport and local traffic were likely over the coming days.
“If trade is disrupted for an extended period, protests denouncing the border closure are possible,” Crisis24 projected.
Chipoka Mulenga, the Zambia Minister of Trade and Industry, told the media his government was engaging its DRC counterpart on the restriction on beer and non-alcoholic drinks.
Analysts in Zambia, however, believe that the DRC is within its rights to ban imports.
“We had to ban onion imports to give local farmers more opportunities,” Clive Simbeleko said.
DRC and Zambia also have an intermittent border dispute over some territory both claim is theirs, dating back to colonial times.
– CAJ New