Control of Goods (Open General Import Licence) Standards Assessment–Consignment Based Conformity Assessment (CBCA) Notice, 2024

The Minister of Industry and Commerce has replaced Zimbabwe's import standards regime with a new Consignment Based Conformity Assessment (CBCA) notice, made under section 4(1)(a) of the Control of Goods (Import and Export) (Commerce) Regulations, 1974. It came into force on the date of publication, 1 March 2024.

The notice applies to any person importing the goods listed in the Fourth Schedule with a Free on Board value above US$1 000 or the equivalent. Separately, everything in the First Schedule — tractors (87.01), buses (87.02), cars (87.03), goods vehicles (87.04), special purpose vehicles (87.05), chassis (87.06), bodies (87.07) and trailers (87.16) — is subject to CBCA regardless of value.

Assessment must be done in the country of origin by the appointed Conformity Assessment Body. The importer or exporter applies with full importer and exporter details, the location of the goods, detailed product descriptions and specifications, production and quality management information, and any existing test reports or certificates of analysis, and pays the assessment fee. The Body then issues either a Certificate of Conformity or a Non-Conformity Report. Goods with a Non-Conformity Report must be exported back to the country of origin or destroyed at the importer's cost.

Arriving without a certificate is expensive. Such goods face compulsory destination assessment before customs clearance, plus a penalty fee of 12 per cent of the CIF value payable to the Treasury Department, on top of inspection fees. The importer must move the goods to a bonded warehouse or other suitable place at his or her own cost, and bears sampling, transport, testing, storage, demurrage, unloading and handling costs. ZIMRA, after consulting the relevant authorities — the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Environmental Management Agency and the Radiation Protection Authority — must destroy substandard goods that fail destination inspection, again at the importer's cost.

The fee schedules are identical for country-of-origin assessment (Second Schedule) and destination assessment (Third Schedule). Motor vehicles are charged a flat US$200 per vehicle unit from the United Kingdom and US$140 per unit from the rest of the world. Used motor vehicle parts are 0,50 per cent of declared FOB value, minimum US$245 and maximum US$2 650. Consolidated goods are 0,65 per cent of the container's FOB value charged to the consolidator, minimum US$245 and maximum US$2 650. General goods are charged by route — 0,50 per cent on Route A, 0,45 per cent on Route B and 0,25 per cent on Route C — with a minimum of US$240 and a maximum of US$2 675.

The Minister may exempt imports where it is in the national interest, and UN organisations and diplomatic missions are exempt as signatories to the Vienna Convention. The notice stresses that the goods descriptions are not exhaustive: the tariff headings are the conclusive test of whether goods are regulated. The Fourth Schedule list is long, running from tea, cooking oil, confectionery, pasta, cereals, bread and biscuits through detergents, candles, pesticides, plastic pipes and sanitary ware, rubber tyres and hoses, toilet paper, twine and rope, carpets, clothing, toys and sanitary towels.

Four earlier notices are repealed: S.I. 132 of 2015, S.I. 124 of 2020, S.I. 186 of 2023 and S.I. 187 of 2023. The repeal of S.I. 132 of 2015 is stated twice, once in section 2 and again in the Fifth Schedule.