The Commission said the move aims to symbolize “the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation” and facilitate “a high-quality China-Africa community with a shared future.”
As China opens up to African farms, long road ahead for ‘green lanes’
As China opens up to African farms, long road ahead for ‘green lanes’
Over the past two years, 21 other African countries have benefited from the elimination of tariffs on 98 percent of their products.
Xi introduced the tariff cuts in 2021 during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in the Senegalese capital Dakar, promising to open “green lanes” for African agricultural exports to China, expand the range of products covered from zero duty treatment and speeding up border processing. The Chinese leader said his country aims to import $300 billion worth of goods from Africa by 2024.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs revealed that trade between China and Africa reached US$234.8 billion in the first 10 months of 2023, flat compared to the same period last year. Imports into China reached US$91.49 billion from the 2023 figure.
The commission said it plans to extend its zero-tariff treatment to all “least developed countries” that have diplomatic relations with Beijing. The tariff relief will allow countries to export to China without facing customs duties on more than 8,000 different products or items.
This will help China increase its imports of African food after more than two decades of buying mostly raw materials from the continent, while it exports electronics, machinery and textiles.
The new measures will allow the DPRK to sell goods such as coffee, palm oil, rubber, cotton and cocoa to China bypassing tariffs, and Angola’s duty-free items include coffee, sisal, fruit, seafood and spices.
China has come under fire for its trade surplus, with some accusing it of promoting an unhealthy balance by exporting finished goods to the continent while importing mostly raw materials.
“I would like to encourage China to open up its market more for processed coffee and other products, not just raw materials,” Museveni said.
“One of the problems in Africa was the export of raw materials, because when you export raw materials, not only is the income much lower, but you also lose jobs. It is important for China and Africa to trade more finished products.”
How Brics expansion could help boost China’s influence in Africa
How Brics expansion could help boost China’s influence in Africa
“To address trade imbalances with African countries, the Chinese seem to believe that agricultural development and increasing imports from Africa could narrow the trade deficit,” said Mandira Bagwandeen, a senior researcher at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Administration. of the University of Cape Town.
But as Carlos Lopes, a professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Administration, pointed out in an interview with the Post last year, while imperfect treatment applies to 98 percent of countries’ tradables, it may not cover the which account for most of the commercial value.
“What will exclude 2 percent is significant as the percentage is calculated based on schedules, not value,” he said, noting that for many of the least developed countries in Africa, much of that value comes from mineral exports.
Brics Summit: African countries wait in the wings for membership expansion
Brics Summit: African countries wait in the wings for membership expansion
Lauren Johnston, an associate professor at the University of Sydney’s Center for China Studies, said there had been a shift in China’s relationship with Africa away from a focus on oil and mineral products. He called the shift the “Hunan model,” after the southern Chinese province led the push.
Johnston said Hunan was chosen as the new frontier for China-Africa relations in part because many of China’s competing industries are based there, including major agri-tech, construction equipment and construction companies.
“Many of these companies have a presence and a long-standing strategy for African markets,” he said.
Johnston highlighted the Hunan model’s focus on agriculture, heavy industrial equipment and transportation, such as electric cars and trains – areas where the province is a leader in China and which are growth industries for many African countries.