By Francis Kobena Tandoh
Chinese Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Tong Defa late Thursday urged African countries to leverage the zero-tariff policy introduced as part of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting held recently.
Briefing the media in the Ghanaian capital of Accra on the ministerial meeting of coordinators on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the FOCAC held in Changsha recently, he observed that little will be made from raw materials without value addition.
He emphasized that the Asian country considers the solidarity and cooperation with Africans strong pillars for shared development and prosperity; hence, the need for African countries to make sense of their natural resources.
“To my understanding, we gave zero tariffs to all 53 countries. I think African countries can take advantage of it. You can quicken your industrialization. You know, you cannot just export raw materials; it doesn’t help you. Raw materials are very cheap, and if you add value to products like cashews, cocoa beans, tropical fruits, and also textiles, they can reset or push a lot of the new policies. I think the Chinese zero-tariff policy can align with your industrialization,” said H.E. Tong.
The Chinese Ambassador argued further that African countries can take advantage of their resources to produce more to be able to increase their trade volumes with China instead of trading among themselves.
“China is now one of your major trading partners because we produce a lot of things that African countries do not have, but we come to you and try to take advantage of your resources. You can take full advantage of your land and natural resources to produce more so you can trade more; otherwise, If you trade with Côte d’Ivoire, you have minerals. Congo Brazzaville and Congo Kinshasa have the same minerals. How can you trade?
The trade volume between Africa and China has reached almost 290 billion. We have the largest, so among yourselves, the trade among four countries is about 500 million, so you can see the difference. So you need to industrialize; you need to make more sense, and then you can trade. Otherwise, there are not too many things to exchange,” added the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana.
The Fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which was also held in Changsha from June 12-15, was attended by nearly 5,000 enterprises and over 30,000 people from China and African countries.
A total worth of 11.39 billion US dollars’ contracts was successfully signed. In the last 3 EXPOs, over 50 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of contracts were signed, and 83 percent have already been fulfilled.
Over recent years, spearheaded by FOCAC, China-Africa relations have achieved great leaps forward.
China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China have established strategic partnerships, and China has been the largest trading partner for Africa for 16 years in a row.
Since the FOCAC Beijing Summit last year, China has made an additional investment of over RMB 13.3 billion, or 1.85 billion U.S. dollars, and provided funding of over RMB 150 billion, or 21 billion U.S. dollars, to Africa.
In the first five months of 2025, China’s imports and exports with Africa reached RMB 963 billion, or 134 billion U.S. dollars, up by 12.4 percent year-on-year, hitting a record high for the same period of the year in history. Enditem
Source: Ghana Eye Report
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