© Insider Narrative. All Rights Reserved.
Trade

China widens trade gap with Africa to record US$102 billion amid US pressure

This post was originally published on this site.

China ramped up its exports to Africa last year, widening its trade surplus with the continent by 64.5 per cent to a record US$102 billion, according to Chinese customs figures.

The jump in the trade gap – up from US$62 billion the previous year – was driven by a 25.8 per cent surge in Chinese exports to the continent to US$225 billion, far outpacing the 5.4 per cent growth in African shipments to China to US$123 billion, according to the latest data from China’s General Administration of Customs.

China is deepening trade with Africa to counter escalating tensions with Washington following US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose higher tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, a move that has seen Beijing retaliate with a series of duties and non-tariff measures.

07:23

Xi Jinping urges SCO summit members’ cooperation and the setting up of a development bank

Xi Jinping urges SCO summit members’ cooperation and the setting up of a development bank

Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and senior research fellow at the AustChina Institute, said the sharp increase in China-Africa trade might be driven by pressure on China’s exports to other regions.

Advertisement

In particular, tensions with the United States, the world’s largest importer, were propelling Chinese firms to find new export markets, she said.

“Since Africa is the market with the most latent demand for many of China’s manufactured goods, it’s an obvious target,” Johnston said, adding that Chinese firms with a presence on the continent might even be responsible for a significant share of the imports.

Advertisement

She noted that this further pointed to the importance of African economies as a global source of growth, particularly as East Asia’s “fast-growth catch-up era” had matured.

Johnston said that some of the Chinese exports were also likely to reflect “intensive” imports of capital goods such as heavy machinery and industrial equipment that were needed but not produced in African economies.