Interview: China's tariff-free trade pact for African countries brings development opportunity, says Ghanaian analyst

The Star

6 hours ago

by Xinhua writer Justice Lee Adoboe
ACCRA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- China's recent decision to expand its preferential trade policy, granting zero-tariff access to a total of 53 African countries, has huge positive significance for both global trade and China-Africa trade, a Ghanaian analyst has said.
"This is a defining moment for Africa and a shining example of what it means to stick to the principles of globalization and free trade, which we are advocating for," Paul Frimpong, executive director of the Africa-China Center for Policy and Advisory (ACCPA), a Ghana-based think tank, told Xinhua recently in an exclusive interview.
The initiative to expand the preferential trade policy, offering tariff-free treatment to all 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China, was announced during the recent Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province, earlier this month.
Frimpong said the preferential treatment elevates China-Africa relations to a new historical high, highlighting China's attitude of giving equal treatment to all African countries and actively helping them achieve development.
China's gesture is also a significant boost for global trade in the complex international environment, where recent reckless imposition of unnecessary tariffs destabilizes and disrupts the global trading architecture, according to Frimpong.
"While the world has spent decades building an ecosystem around globalization, multilateralism, and trade. But in recent times, we've seen a movement that undermines this ecosystem that we spent years building," he said.
The analyst noted that many global institutions, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), were built to promote global trade, and all WTO members need to promote global trading principles by removing all trade barriers, including punitive tariffs.
"However, some recent developments seek to undermine these principles," he observed.
Frimpong, therefore, has seen China's expansion of its free-trade policy to 53 African countries as not only an opportunity for Africa but also a perfect substitute for all the least developed countries (LDCs) across the world bearing the brunt of the new tariff war.
He recalled that among the countries around the world that already enjoy free access to the Chinese market, 33 of them were African LDCs. The new measure will enable 20 more African countries to enjoy free access to the Chinese market.
"This preferential trade treatment presents a significant opportunity for Africa to bridge the trade deficit between the continent and China by utilizing the 1.4-billion-people Chinese market," he said.
China has maintained its position as Africa's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, with bilateral trade volume surpassing 2 trillion yuan for the first time in 2024 to reach 2.1 trillion yuan (about 293.2 billion dollars), data from the General Administration of Customs of China showed.
From January to May this year, China-Africa trade totaled 963.21 billion yuan, marking a 12.4 percent year-on-year increase and hitting a record high for the period.
Frimpong said that research by the ACCPA and other institutes indicates a strong demand in the Chinese market for African exports, which is an opportunity for Africa to develop their manufacturing capacities to export value-added products to the Chinese market.
"Obviously, this free market for Africa gives African countries the opportunity to diversify their products and meet the demands of the Chinese market. And of course, they will also earn more for their countries," he added.