photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Sarah Bhoroma, acting Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States, was in Lawrence on Friday, July 18, 2025 as part of a four-day trip to Kansas to spur more economic ties between the state and her country. She's pictured at Innovation Park on KU's West Campus, where she learned about businesses located at the park.

A high-ranking visitor on the University of Kansas campus Friday had a suggestion for U.S businesses wondering how to adapt to a brewing worldwide trade war.

Do more business with Zimbabwe.

While the idea maybe isn’t top-of-mind for most U.S. companies, it certainly is for Sarah Bhoroma. She’s the acting Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States, and was in Lawrence on Friday as part of a four-day trip to Kansas to spur more economic ties between the state and her country.

“We have seen a lot, and we have discovered there are a lot of similarities between the economy of Zimbabwe and Kansas,” Bhoroma said of the trip, which included earlier stops in Topeka and Wichita.

A key similarity is agriculture. While Zimbabwe may not be of a size — about 17 million people in the southern half of Africa — to ever be a huge market for Kansas-grown crops, Bhoroma said Kansas’ know-how in agricultural technology would likely be highly valued in Zimbabwe.

Bhoroma said a company like multinational agriculture firm Cargill, which has a large presence in Kansas, could find significant business opportunity in Zimbabwe.

“It can be two-way,” Bhoroma said of the economic opportunities between Kansas and Zimbabwe. “We can have mutually beneficial relationships. We can have businesses that bring profits to Kansas, and we can have businesses that improve the economic sector of Zimbabwe.”

The relationships also might serve as an example for the broader world. Zimbabwe’s government is promoting the idea that international trade should be conducted free of tariffs. The country was one of the first to drop all tariffs on U.S.-made goods after President Donald Trump announced broad-ranging tariffs for goods entering the U.S. from almost any country on the globe as part of his “Liberation Day” tariffs program in April.

“We would prefer no tariffs and we would prefer to work on non-tariff barriers because we think the tariffs make trade difficult,” Bhoroma said. “We are a point where we are trying to negotiate with the federal government.”

In April, Zimbabwe was told to expect a U.S. tariff of about 18%, Bhoroma said. Her country quickly decided to eliminate all tariffs for U.S. goods entering Zimbabwe. The Trump administration hasn’t yet agreed to drop all tariffs against Zimbabwe, but Trump in recent days said tariffs on most African countries likely would settle near 10%. Zimbabwe will continue to honor its no-tariff pledge, Bhoroma said.

“We will cancel any tariffs on U.S. exports to Zimbabwe,” Bhoroma said. “We are trying to entice them in a negotiation where we have tariff-free trade.”

Even if the U.S. tariffs on goods from Zimbabwe remain, the 10% tariffs could still be significantly lower than what many other U.S. trading partners are facing. Bhoroma hopes that will cause companies to become more informed of what Zimbabwe can offer, especially in terms of natural resources. The country has a gold mining industry, and she said this week’s trip has had a goal of getting Kansas companies interested in possible mining partnerships in her country.

“We are trying to entice businesses in Kansas to also explore Zimbabwe’s mining sector,” she said. “We have a lot of minerals, including critical minerals, rare earth minerals, that we think we can offer to Kansas. We know there is a challenge in the U.S. of over-reliance on China for the supply of critical minerals.”

Currently, the U.S. is not among Zimbabwe’s top trading partners. The CIA’s World Fact Book publication lists the United Arab Emirates as the country’s top export partner by a large margin, with China in the No. 2 spot. However, the CIA publication also notes the country’s total amount of exports tallied only about $7.6 billion in 2023. For context, that is about half of the value of goods that Kansas exported during the same year. Hyperinflation presents a major challenge for the country’s economy, according to multiple reports.

Zimbabwe struggled for decades to gain economic standing in the international community due to numerous sanctions levied against it during the decades-long authoritarian regime of Robert Mugabe, which ended in 2017.

In Lawrence, representatives with the Lawrence chamber of commerce, the Kansas Department of Commerce and KU showed the Zimbabwe delegation several locations on campus, including a tour of Innovation Park on KU’s West Campus.