Infographic: Is China’s new 100% duty-free trade pledge for African LDCs a big deal?
The 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held in Beijing from September 4-6, 2024, resulted in many new plans to enhance China-Africa cooperation, especially on trade. At the Summit, the most attention-grabbing trade-related announcement was China’s pledge to remove 100% of tariffs on all exports from Africa’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that have diplomatic ties […]
Infographic: China’s tariff scheme for African LDC countries is now 21 years old. What next?
Two years after its own accession into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), China initiated a scheme to allow 190 products from 30 African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to enter China duty-free. The announcement of the scheme was made at the 2nd Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting in 2003 and implemented in 2005. At the time, […]
Press Release: Fostering Prosperity: Boosting & Diversifying Africa’s Exports to China
The African Union Permanent Mission to China and Development Reimagined (DR) organised a roundtable discussion on the theme “Fostering Prosperity: Boosting & Diversifying Africa’s Exports to China” on June 25, 2024, at the African Union’s Permanent Mission in Beijing. This hybrid event aimed to create a platform for discussions and reflections on strategic and practical […]
African Members’ Position at WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference
This briefing reviews African positions put forward at The World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) earlier this year and the potential impact of the meetings on internal and external African trade. It will also examine Africa’s broader relationship with the WTO and to what degree African members are able to participate in and […]
President Bio’s China visit charts a more holistic path for China -Sierra Leone relations
From 27 February to 2 March 2024, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, paid a state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visit marked the first presidential African leadership visit to China of 2024. Our past research shows that the frequent, African high-level visits to […]
Development Reimagined and the UN ECA sign MOU to boost value-added trade between China and Africa
Development Reimagined (DR) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) have established a partnership that began on 22nd February 2023 after the signing of a joint MOU at the ECA office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of the ECA and DR partnering is to leverage their networks and expertise to promote African-made […]
HOW IS THE RED SEA CRISIS AFFECTING AFRICAN COUNTRIES?
Starting on November 19, Houthi attacks and counter-strikes on commercial ships transiting through the Bab al-Mandab strait along the Red Sea have been a major disruptor of international trade through this vital artery. A 32km wide channel connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, the strait is a strategic maritime chokepoint. The route […]
What South African Rooibos Tea Can Tell Us About Africa-China Trade Flows
Last month, China’s General Administration of Customs released its customs data for 2023. The data showed that China’s total trade with Africa grew a modest 1.5 percent in 2023, reaching $282.1 billion, but Africa’s trade deficit with China widened. While Chinese exports to Africa reached $173 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent over 2022, Africa’s exports to China dropped by […]
It’s time for African countries to shape the WTO, not just sit in it
At the 50th anniversary celebration of the origins of the international trade system in 1998 in Geneva, Nelson Mandela in his speech said: “The developing countries must accept that we want to be fully part of the WTO, and that includes improving the management of the world trading system to ensure that our economies do […]
Not Just an African Tale: China’s Trade Slowdown from a Global Perspective
In recent weeks, a flurry of articles appeared pointing out that Africa’s biggest bilateral trade partner, China, had significantly slowed its imports from Africa. To prevent another oversimplified doom and gloom narrative about Africa from circulating, we decided to break down the numbers to get a deeper understanding of this phenomenon – something we continuously […]
