Since May 1st, 2026, 53 African countries have had zero-tariff access to the Chinese market. This is one of the most momentous developments in the realm of global trade. No other major world economy had ever unilaterally and comprehensively granted African economies such preferential treatment before.
The zero-tariff arrangement is a culmination of two decades of gradual expansion of China’s economic relations in Africa since 2005, when it first established duty-free treatment for a small basket of products to some of Africa’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Over the years, China expanded and widened the preferential space within which African countries could do business with it through discussions at various FOCAC summits (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation). By December 2024, at least 33 African Least Developed Countries had benefited from a myriad tariff lines from China. The zero-tariff expansion that commenced in May 2026 was therefore initiated for the remaining 20 non-LDC economies, including Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa. This preferential arrangement is designed to run until April 2028. The terms of this arrangement are also expected to be anchored permanently in the forthcoming China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development agreement. Therefore, this is China’s latest step on the ladder of supportive economic relations with Africa, which we have been building together since the early 2000s.
It is crucial that we put into perspective the context under which this development has emerged. The United States, which had for long been the leading development partner of several African countries, with such initiatives such as USAID and AGOA (the African Growth and Opportunity Act) acting in the governance and economic spaces of our countries, has evolved a considerably hardened posture towards us. Thanks to Trump’s undisguised contempt for Africa, America’s relationship with us often dwindles when he is in office. Sometimes, this is not a really bad thing.
AGOA was paused in September 2025, bringing America’s cornerstone policy of trade preference for Africa to a halt, which is struggling to pick up despite later being renewed. This experience reminded our countries of the fragility and brittle nature of our relations with Washington, which seems to sway with the shifting moods of the Trump regime.
It has even been worsened by the coercive trade tariff diplomacy which has come to punctuate Trump’s second term in office. There’s therefore a deliberate contrast in posture to be deduced from China’s moves at this time, although as already posited, it has been building fairer and better trade arrangements with Africa since the 2000s.
The global economic and trade arena is now a contest and contrast between Beijing’s predictability and Washington’s volatility. The more America embraces protectionist tendencies, the more China implements openness. Beijing has not even demanded or required reciprocal tariff cuts from African governments. It has been unconditional, except, of course, for diplomatic recognition. This is both sheer generosity and strategy. I see no problem with either, since such a strategy is mutually beneficial. It should be Washington to worry now, since its soft power pre-eminence on the continent is being won over by Beijing.
If we evaluate this new development on the spectrum of China’s fifty-year sweep of cooperation with Africa, this policy marks not an incremental adjustment but an inflexion point. It is a paradigmatic shift from the decades of steady engagements in infrastructure financing, mining and industrial park development. What was less developed in this partnership was trade access to the Chinese market. This has now been handled. African countries now stand a chance to earn foreign exchange from China by importing processed and value-added goods, textiles, etc.
Nevertheless, we must face the new challenges now, which will become more apparent when the celebration confetti is swept away. We must build the efficiency to meet the rules of origin requirements. We have to build capacity to meet phytosanitary standards. We have to meet certification costs. We have to meet logistics bottlenecks. We need to meet all these challenges if we are to benefit. We don’t just have to simply celebrate open doors but also prepare to organise behind them how to make. We must build industrial capacity to convert tariff-free access into genuine export diversification.
The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.
