China put into effect a two-year zero-tariff policy for the 20 largest African economies on Friday, extending duty-free access to 53 of the continent’s 54 countries. The only excluded nation, the southern African kingdom of Eswatini, was left out because it is the only African nation that maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan — a relationship Beijing considers a violation of its One-China principle.
The move came as the United States under President Donald Trump continues to roll out import taxes that have prompted several African exporters to look beyond the American market. The Trump administration imposed a round of reciprocal tariffs a year ago — at one point charging South Africa a 30 percent rate and setting levies above 40 percent for other African nations — and, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the broad global tariffs as unconstitutional in February, quickly replaced them with temporary import taxes.
“South Africa looks forward to working with China in a friendly, pragmatic and flexible manner,” South African Trade Minister Parks Tau said during bilateral talks in the same month, according to the Associated Press.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that a shipment of 24 metric tons of South African apples cleared customs in Shenzhen in the early hours of Friday, the first batch of goods admitted under the new zero-tariff policy. The Commerce Ministry highlighted that products such as cocoa from Ivory Coast and Ghana, coffee and avocados from Kenya, and citrus fruits and wine from South Africa — which previously faced tariffs between 8 and 30 percent — would be primary beneficiaries. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer, and together with Ghana supplies more than half of the global market; South Africa is a major citrus exporter.
China is already Africa’s largest trade partner, and the continent’s population of 1.5 billion is projected by the United Nations to nearly double by 2050. Yet the trade relationship is deeply imbalanced. China-Africa trade hit a record $348 billion in 2025, but China’s exports to Africa rose roughly 25 percent to $225 billion, while its imports from Africa grew only about 5 percent to $123 billion, widening the deficit for African economies. China has long imported raw materials and sent back manufactured goods.
Thierry Pairault, a China-Africa expert at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, wrote in an assessment published by the China Global South Project that most African raw-material exports — oil, minerals — already enjoyed tariff-free access to China. The new policy may bring some benefits for agricultural products, he noted, but he argued that Beijing is using it as a messaging tool.
“Xi Jinping is positioning China as the antithesis of Western protectionism. This gesture is intended to appeal to both African public opinion and global markets,” Pairault wrote, before adding that the policy “only applies where it costs (China) almost nothing.”