YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS: Agoa, tanzanite exports: is Tanzania transfixed?

The proverbial heavy dust stirred up by the ‘Makinikia Fiend’ in Tanzania is yet to settle by far! ‘Makininia’ is ‘Tanzanese’ for ore tailings – also known elsewhere as ‘mineral sands,’ ‘ore concentrates,’ etc…‘Tailings’ are ‘the residue separated in the preparation of various products such as grain … Or, in this particular case: the residue after ‘valuable’ minerals are extracted from ores.

More often than not, gold ore tailings do have valuable ‘minerals’ in them, including copper, silver – and more gold!

That’s basically why some countries install state-of-the-art smelting facilities that’re used to ‘further squeeze out’ the valuable minerals ‘stubbornly remaining’ in the tailings – much to the benefit of the tailings ‘owners’ and their close associates-in-business!

Tanzania doesn’t (yet) have such a facility – serious shortcoming for a country so phenomenally-endowed with wealth potential in natural and other resources.

Also, the lack of sophisticated refining facilities is compounded by the disillusion that what (foreign) miners find in/on Tanzanian soil is ‘theirs’ – minerals and all, including gangue, tailings and what-have-you!

That’s the unfortunate result of a late-1990s mining regime based upon faulty policy and legislative frameworks indecently lopsided in favour of usually transnational mining conglomerates! Fortunately – bar fateful developments of cataclysmic proportions, touch wood! – that damning regime’s being reviewed to ostensibly create a ‘Win-Win’ situation for all stakeholders, including Tanzanians, the natural owners of the God-given resources.

If and when that happens, then the Fifth-Phase Govt. of President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli’d deserve a hearty pat on the back… Cheers in advance! But then again, even as the heavy ‘Makinikia’ dust hasn’t settled, more fiendish storms are still brewing within the Tanzanian Economy.

Two of them relate to foreign trade: tanzanite exports, and exports to the US under the special Africa Growth & Opportunity Act (Agoa) trade  arrangements! The rare gemstone ‘tanzanite’ is unique to Tanzania, ‘discovered’ by a ‘small miner’ in 1967. Fair enough…

But, what’s most consternating is the cruel twist that Tanzania ISN’T the leading, or even the second, leading exporter of the gem. Being the sole country of origin notwithstanding, Tanzania’s ranked third in the tanzanite exports stakes!

Reliable information’s that, while Tanzania exported US$38m-worth of tanzanite in Year-2014, Kenya next-door exported tanzanite worth US$100m – while India took the lead, exporting tanzanite worth US$300m that year: nearly eight times as much as Tanzania! [‘Mwananchi’: July 15, 2017]. How can one rationally explain such an indecent anomally, pray? Is Tanzania transfixed so that it cannot get out of that ‘embarrassing equation?’ The President Clinton Administration enacted Agoa on May 18, 2000, enhacing access to the vast US market for sub-Saharan nations on conditions that they routinely observed the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Core Labour Standards, etc.

Thereafter, Tanzania has facetiously enjoyed Agoa status, with US$149.4m-worth of exports to ‘America’ in 2016 alone! Some Tanzanian manufactories – including the ‘Mzava’ and ‘Tooku’ textile industries, which employ thoudands of locals and earn millions in forex as export proceeds annually – depend 100 per cent on the US market … [See TheCitizen’: July 13, 2017].

Agoa’s regularly reviewed to ensure it operates as intended. The latest such review has Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda in trepidation, after banning used clothing imports – a major US export to the region – as the countries creakingly prepare to ‘indistrialize’ and manufacture clothing. Fair enough…

But, if Tanzania can/will produce affordable, quality clothing on the lines of the readily-affordable, quality clothing imports: why’d the Govt. quakingly ban the latter? Shouldn’t imported and local clothing be given free reign to effectively compete at the marketplace – if only to sustain Agoa?

Obviously, the Govt. already senses, fears, that stiff competition from such imports’d floor the local product hands down!

Now, this is a delicate moment, with Tanzania transfixed between nurturing Agoa and going through the motions of industrialisation… Have we come to that? I hope NOT.