When China rolled out its expanded zero-tariff policy for African exports earlier this month, the move was far more than a routine trade adjustment — it marked a landmark step forward in equitable South-South cooperation that experts say could reshape Africa’s position in global trade and value chains.
Implemented on May 1, the new policy extends duty-free access to all 53 African nations that maintain diplomatic relations with China, expanding on a 2024 framework that only covered the continent’s 33 least developed countries. The policy change was the central focus of a recent online seminar hosted by the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory based in Ghana, where trade and international relations experts broke down the initiative’s long-term potential and remaining challenges for African economies.
Unlike unilateral preferential trade schemes offered by some Western powers, Tang Xiaoyang, chair and professor of the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University, emphasized that China’s zero-tariff arrangement carries no binding political conditions. Framing the policy as a long-term framework for collaborative growth between developing nations rather than a short-term aid package, Tang noted that its core aligns with the core South-South principles of equality and mutual benefit. While early gains will likely flow to African agricultural exports — including coffee, fresh fruits, and seafood — the overarching goal is to drive broader industrial development and deeper integration of regional economies into Sino-African value chains, he added.
The expansion adds major African economies including Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Ghana to the zero-tariff scheme, all of which already boast relatively mature export and manufacturing sectors. Tang explained that these economies are well-positioned to drive regional industrial progress via supply chain linkages and cross-border investment spillovers that benefit smaller neighboring nations.
South African international affairs expert Mikatekiso Kubayi framed the policy as a critical opportunity for African countries to build economic self-reliance and accelerate industrialization at a time of growing global economic volatility. He pointed to the recent shipment of South African citrus to China under the new rules as an early indicator of the tangible market access gains the policy can deliver for African producers. Beyond direct trade benefits, Kubayi noted that deeper collaboration with China in research, technology, and innovation can help African economies evolve from passive importers of foreign technology to active, valued contributors to global production networks.
While most experts expressed broad optimism about the policy’s transformative potential, many also stressed that duty-free access alone will not automatically translate to sustained development gains for African nations. Long-term success, they agree, hinges on African governments’ ability to address longstanding structural barriers that limit productive capacity and competitiveness.
Wang Jinjie, a research professor at Peking University’s National School of Development and Institute of Area Studies, noted that the primary barrier facing African economies today is no longer access to global markets — it is the capacity to turn open market access into durable, inclusive industrial growth. “Opportunity doesn’t equal a development outcome by itself,” she explained, adding that most African nations continue to grapple with systemic constraints including underdeveloped logistics networks, limited local processing capacity, widespread skilled labor shortages, exorbitant transportation costs, and inconsistent quality control frameworks.
Wang highlighted people-centered development initiatives emerging from China-Africa cooperation as a promising pathway to address these gaps, pointing specifically to the growing network of Luban Workshops across the continent. These vocational training programs, developed through bilateral cooperation, equip young African workers with technical skills tailored to growing sectors including manufacturing, agribusiness, and emerging green and digital industries.
Rosemary Mnongya, a senior researcher at the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory, echoed this outlook, urging African governments to reframe the policy opportunity to shift “from access to advantage.” To do this, she said, nations must prioritize local value addition and cross-border regional industrial cooperation, leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework to build integrated regional production networks that can compete more effectively in the Chinese market. For example, Mnongya pointed to value-addition models: processing Tanzanian avocados into higher-value avocado oil, or weaving Tanzanian cotton into fabric for Ethiopian garment manufacturers, before exporting the finished product to China under the zero-tariff scheme, to capture far greater economic benefit than exporting raw materials alone.