China’s willingness to lower import tariffs for African goods encouraging, but must be approached thoughtfully

Last week I commented quite positively on China’s offer to lower tariffs on a range of products from Africa. SA has signed the China-Africa Framework that facilitates this engagement. While we need to be very careful about its implementation across industries in our economy, especially given reciprocity and our competing interests in Africa, from an agricultural perspective, it appears positive.

I maintain the broadly optimistic view I outlined last week and want to underscore a few points. First, SA accounts for only 0.4% of China’s agricultural supplier list. However, this current access in China is vital for the wool and red meat industry.

China accounts for roughly 70% of SA’s wool exports. There is a progressive increase in red meat exports, even though animal diseases currently cause glitches. The focus should be on expanding this access by lowering duties and other non-tariff barriers to encourage greater exports of fruit, grains and other products to China.

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Still, it is essential to emphasise that the focus on China is not at the expense of existing agricultural export markets and relationships. Instead, China offers an opportunity to continue diversifying exports. Second, China is among the world’s leading agricultural importers, accounting for 9% of global agricultural imports in 2024 (before 2024, China had been a leading importer for many years).

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