Flip Side: Is Africa ready for duty-free acces to China?

DW (English)

China is not relenting in its efforts to deepen economic ties with Africa. It is offering duty-free access to its markets for African products. Analysts say it’s a win-win situation for China and Africa. But is Africa ready to rake in the benefits?

Transcript

00:00Now China is offering Africa another set of goodies, this time around in trade. Its duty-free

00:05access to its market for African products starting December is considered by some as a game-changer

00:11for the continent in its quest to industrialise. But haven't we been here before? The US and other

00:18Western countries have made similar offers to selected African countries for some products

00:22in the past. So how different is China's offer and does Africa really stand to gain?

00:30Welcome to The Flipside. In a major push to deepen economic ties with Africa, China has now granted

00:36duty-free access to 100% of products originating in 33 African countries. This means that cost

00:44barriers for African goods entering the Chinese market will be significantly lower. It should

00:48also make the overall prices of African goods competitive and give exporters more opportunities

00:54to penetrate the vast Chinese consumer market. For some analysts, the arrangement is long overdue.

01:24China wants to expand market access for African agricultural products

01:34and deepen collaboration in e-commerce. African governments are in support of this,

01:39especially since China's imports of agricultural products are already on the increase. In the first

01:45seven months of 2024, the Asian giant imported $3.58 billion worth of agricultural products

01:53from Africa, a 7.2% increase compared to the same period last year. With this widening of access to

01:59the Chinese market, are African businesses actually ready to take advantage? Why not?

02:06Because mostly it's the barriers that are created that impede Africans from trading.

02:14Some of the requirements and all that, if there is some of these requirements and then also is

02:20the tariffs and all that, why not? When an opportunity is created, there are no slides on

02:26African leaders to take that opportunity and create their endeavoring environment for its

02:32business people to do what is needful. In principle, the U.S. has had a similar plan to boost

02:40economies in Africa, but its long-standing African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, has come with

02:47many challenges. And then there is also the African Continental Free Trade Area, or the AFCFTA,

02:54which is yet to realize its full potential. So how should the continent position itself

03:00as the interest by the West and China peaks? Even though each country would have its priorities,

03:08we must find synchrony and try to synchronize some of the things because we are all primary

03:15producers. We are all growing crops, we are all raw material exporters, cotton, cocoa, coffee,

03:21and things like that. So we have to come together, try to synchronize our interests. We have the AU.

03:28We should not be going to China, every country going to China, when AU can represent Africa.

03:33So we must give AU the necessary things to bite. And that's the flip side.

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