African countries should use China’s zero-tariff access as a platform to expand exports while investing in productivity, value addition and regional supply chains, experts have said.
The policy is creating new opportunities for African businesses to access the Chinese market, but experts warn that removing tariffs alone will not be enough to deliver a major increase in exports.
Speaking during a webinar hosted by the Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory, Linda Calabrese, an economist at ODI Global, said African exporters need to focus on products where they can compete effectively and where demand in China is strong.
She said countries should take advantage of the immediate tariff benefit while simultaneously improving their productive capacity, infrastructure, standards and logistics.
Agriculture and agro-processing were identified as areas with significant potential. Rather than exporting commodities such as coffee and cocoa in largely unprocessed form, African countries could capture greater value by developing processing industries closer to the source of production.
“Agro-processing is a path to industrialization,” Calabrese said.
The same approach could be applied to timber and minerals. African economies could move from exporting raw timber towards products such as furniture, while mineral-producing countries could increase domestic processing and beneficiation before exporting to international markets.
However, infrastructure and market-access barriers remain significant. Exporters must contend with certification requirements, transportation costs, cold-chain limitations and competition from established producers in other regions.
Calabrese said African governments should assess export opportunities on a product-by-product basis, considering domestic production capacity, Chinese demand, existing export capabilities and the costs associated with meeting market requirements.
She estimated that around 500 products across 20 African countries could potentially offer short-term export opportunities to China, based on these factors.
Understanding Chinese standards and certification requirements will be particularly important for businesses seeking to enter or expand in the market. Governments can help exporters navigate those requirements, while companies need to determine whether compliance costs make individual products commercially viable.
Regional cooperation could also help African exporters overcome limited production scale. Developing regional value chains would allow countries to combine capabilities and resources while creating larger and more competitive supply networks for the Chinese market.
However, rules of origin could present challenges where products incorporate inputs from several African countries and exporters need to demonstrate that their goods qualify for preferential treatment.
Paul Frimpong, founder and executive director of the Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory, said African governments should develop clear, country-specific strategies for engaging with China.
China is already a major trading partner for several African economies and has a substantial presence across trade, infrastructure and other sectors.
The zero-tariff opportunity therefore provides African exporters with greater potential access to one of the world’s largest markets. Turning that access into sustained export growth, however, will depend on whether countries can increase production, strengthen regional value chains and move further into processing and higher-value manufactured products.