Botswana Bets on Infant Industries

Government says temporary tariff protection for selected local industries must translate into jobs, investment and globally competitive manufacturing.

GAZETTE REPORTER

Botswana is using temporary tariff protection to give selected local industries time to build capacity, create jobs and become competitive as the country confronts fiscal pressures, rising business costs and growing uncertainty in the global economy. Speaking at a stakeholder and media engagement on the implementation of Infant Industry Protection, Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship Tiroeaone Ntsima said Botswana was at a defining point in its economic development and could no longer rely on “business as usual.”

Ntsima said the economic realities facing Botswana created an opportunity to rethink the country’s growth model and chart new pathways for prosperity. He said the 12th National Development Plan represented a shift towards precision implementation, targeted interventions, stronger accountability and measurable results, while the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme had been established as its execution engine.

Tariff Protection

Ntsima said the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme was anchored on private-sector-led growth because sustainable economic transformation could not be driven by Government expenditure alone. Infant Industry Protection, he said, is a recognised development instrument under Article 26 of the SACU Agreement of 2002, allowing less developed SACU member states, including Botswana, to temporarily support qualifying emerging industries through additional customs duties on like products imported from within SACU and the rest of the world.

Following industry assessments, Government identified shade nets, surgical masks and thermal paper rolls as industries with sufficient potential to qualify for support. From February 2026, additional customs duties of 10 percent were introduced on shade nets, increasing the applied rate to 30 percent, while thermal paper rolls attracted an additional 20 percent, taking the rate from zero to 20 percent, and surgical masks received an additional 10 percent, bringing the applied rate to 30 percent.

Ntsima said the objective was not permanent protection, but to give emerging industries time to improve productivity, invest in technology, achieve economies of scale and strengthen their competitiveness. The protection period, he said, should therefore be used to prepare firms to compete without the tariff shield.

Beyond Tariffs

The minister cautioned that tariffs alone would not create sustainable industries, saying firms also required access to finance, markets, infrastructure, skills, standards compliance support, technology, business development services and investment. Institutions including BOTC, BDC, CEDA, BITC, SPEDU, LEA, BURS, BEMA and Business Botswana are collaborating to develop a coordinated support ecosystem for the beneficiary industries.

The intended outcome is a framework that aligns institutional interventions with the specific needs of the protected industries. Ntsima said this broader support would be critical if temporary tariff protection was to produce stronger businesses rather than simply delay competition.

Jobs At Risk

Ntsima acknowledged that the SACU consultations preceding implementation had been lengthy, with some processes taking up to two years while local industries faced what he described as serious existential threats. “Investments in excess of P50 Million, and over 80 jobs remained at risk during this time,” he said, adding that Botswana had since successfully negotiated SACU Guidelines on the implementation of Article 26 to provide greater certainty, transparency and predictability for future applications.

He urged beneficiary firms to use the protection period to invest in productivity, quality standards and skills, strengthen competitiveness and prepare for export markets. “The objective of Infant Industry Protection is not to shield firms from competition in perpetuity,” Ntsima said. “The objective is to develop industries that can remain competitive long after the protection period has ended.”