The Sunday News
Economic Focus by Gabriel Masvora
TRADE has existed since the Stone Age era, allowing people to exchange, sell or buy goods among each other.
While those who have plenty sometimes dictate the terms of the trade, over the years individuals, corporates and countries have tried to embrace the concept of fair trade.
Economists might try all the jargon to explain fair trade but the term is basically self-explanatory — it is just fair price for the product sold and the product must be good and worthy.
There might be further explanations on how “fair” must be measured but the bottom line is that both the buyer and the seller must at the end of the day be satisfied with the transaction.
Fair trade sometimes goes hand-in-hand with free trade where Government literally removes barriers for importation and exportation of goods to create free movement within borders.
In most cases it is left to the concept of demand and supply to dictate the prices and how fair the trade is in terms of pricing.
It has its disadvantages and advantages but the push by many countries and economic blocs to create what is now termed the global village shows many support unrestricted trade.
A global village is seen as a world of free movement of goods and services across the globe without or with very limited restrictions.
The concept is already in place and is evident in Zimbabwe where because of the collapse of the local industry most of the goods used in the counbtry are imported from a number of countries, some as far as the United States and Brazil.
Among those goods are cars.
Most cars in the country are imported and the country has become one of the preferred markets for those countries that export cars.
Most of these cars are second-hand and are mainly from Japan and the United Kingdom.
The local car industry is dead and it does not look like it will wake up any time soon to serve the majority of the people, especially considering the meagre salaries they are earning.
Most people have been forced to import cheap second-hand cars from Japan and the majority of the cars on our roads were imported from the Asian country.
Of course Government through the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has tried to control the imports by consistently reviewing duty.
However, this has not deterred Zimbabweans from buying the cars as they cannot afford new cars.
At one time Government wanted to ban the car imports but many people were against the idea.
People argued that the imported cars were affordable and unless the local car industry improved to support low income earners there was no way this ban could stand.
Zimbabwe is not alone in this, most countries in southern Africa except South Africa, which has a vibrant car industry, are now home to thousands of these Japanese cars.
Fair enough, maybe this is the fair and free trade where customers are allowed to buy where they think the goods are affordable, but it is high time we start questioning some of the motives of these huge car sales to Africa and other developing countries.
For the past few weeks, I have been monitoring some of the prices offered by dealers in Japan for the second-hand cars.
While the poor person who dreams of owning a car might salivate over the price, some of them are ridiculous and must somehow push governments to start thinking and questioning whether this is still fair trade or something else.
A number of cars are being sold for a $1 in Japan. Yes $1, that which can only buy a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe.
Some people have always argued that this is a well calculated global scandal where developed countries have found a smart way of dumping goods that have lived their lifespan to the developing countries.
There has not been much research to support this argument but even a layman will be forgiven for thinking that this is real.
I support free and fair trade but these prices must make African governments think twice and come up with a proper situation to deal with this problem.
I know most people dream to drive and strive to own a car sometime in their lives no matter how little they earn but is Japan really dropping the prices for our sake or for something else.
It might be fair pricing yes, but when a car is now selling for as little as a $1 it is the same as being sold for “free”.
It means every now and again ‘‘free’’ cars are shipped into the developing countries and the question must be why?
Why would a car cost $1?
We are a people who were taught that no one goes into business to make losses.
We cannot be forced to think that therefore these dealers in Japan are doing this so that they can make losses or just want to support countries whose automotive industry is dead.
What is the motive of these massive car giveaways to the developing community? What are the implications on the future of the car industry in Zimbabwe and other affected countries and more importantly on their environments?
Most of them have economic challenges yes, and their people will accept anything cheap with a smile but it is time to look into the broad picture.
Imagine even with all the tobacco we produce as Zimbabwe, can we wake up tomorrow and say fine let’s just export the crop for free. Never, so why is Japan doing this?
We need experts to do proper researches on these cars and maybe we can deduce why some countries have taken the so-called ‘‘fair’’ trade to these ridiculous levels.
I am not saying let us ban these car imports (mind you I also drive a second-hand car import from Japan) but we cannot just close our eyes simply because we feel we are benefiting today.
The country, and the region as well, need to activate their monitoring systems to seriously check what is going on in this business of car imports.
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