{UAH} CHINA-AFRICA TRADE REALITIES.

I find it interesting that China is able to make a brand new T-shirt at $1 US Dollar, yet Ugandans are busy buying second hand T-shirts between $3 and $8 dollars a piece.
If the reason for buying used clothes was affordability, why are people still purchasing them when brand new ones are now even cheaper.
More intriguingly, it is clear that the EU is dumping all their used stuff (from second hand computers and home appliances, to their used clothes), in Africa.
Surprisingly Europeans are reporting the contrary in their global media. They say China is the one flooding cheap stuff in Africa.
But isn't it good that Africans now have affordable brand new products available in the local market?
Trade between Africa and China is growing, and the imports are by;
1 - African businessmen travelling to China, purchasing products and shipping them to Africa.
2 - Chinese companies sending their products to Chinese outlets in Africa who will then market/sell the products to Africans.
3 - Chinese companies supplying orders made to them from Africa.
While we need to look at the exact percentages for these three categories, they already answer the question concerning who is bringing Chinese products to Africa, and who is consuming them here. Well it is mostly Africans ourselves.
A few days ago, I was surprised to be contacted by a major Chinese Government agency. One that specializes in connecting prospective Trade partners with almost the entire Chinese export industry. They have already subscribed me as a VIP member eith access to all their resource information.
A person can contact practically any supplier and get quotes immediately from different sources.
They are ready to assist in all the basics like sending inquiries, arranging online sourcing meetings. They offer a VIP one-stop service. They say they offer Secured Trading Services (STS), and more importantly, they have SGS Quality Inspection.
SGS is an internationally reknown shipping company working across the globe.
So when persons complain that "the Chinese are dumping cheap products in Africa", it isn't true.
We are buying what we choose to buy from China.
The misinformation is engineered by people who can't compete. Officials from developed countries are simply looking for ways to make us switch back to their own expensive products.
They are also breaking their own free-market/free trade rules by blocking anything 'Made in China' from crossing their own borders. They seemingly want everyone to do the same, which is to their own industries' advantage.
However let us be conscious about the African reality. The laws of demand and supply dictate that the African market wants even more Chinese products.
They are perfectly suited for most of our meagre income earners.
We are importing them in large quantities ourselves, and our consumers are actually scrambling for them.
They are definitely making life in many African households abit more comfortable.
I would estimate that in most African urban homes, 80% of the electrical appliances and kitchen utensils are "Made in China".
Currently there is a new preferential trade deal between the EU and East Africa in the offing. Tanzania and Uganda are still holding back. But if successful, East Africa could export certain products to Europe tax free and they could do the same.
It is worth noting that at the moment we cannot export almost 99% of our products to either the US or the EU.
Have we wondered why they are blocking us as well?
But the biggest hurdle for EU products coming to Africa will be the competition from Chinese alternatives.
While European items might be good quality, their pricing will have to be competitive enough or else the so-called "cheap Chinese products" will kick them where it hurts most in business, and send them packing right back to Brussels.
Meanwhile, even European used underwear is dumped in Africa.
We need to send those back as well.
In the meantime, shouldn't we seriously consider exactly how Chinese products are as affordable as they are, and then start production ourselves?
If it means buying entire industries and machinery, so be it. Ugandan labor is low cost as well, and the Ugandan economy plus job market desperately need such a major impetus within a wholistic industrialization policy.
And because trade between Africa and China is seeing the fastest growth compared to any other region, Africa might have to consider facilitating this momentum further by trading directly in the Chinese currency, the Yuan.
This makes Chinese products even more accessible. We would also be cutting out any extra monetary systems that have mysteriously placed themselves between African currencies and the Chinese banknote. The Yuan (CNY) is fast becoming a global business currency.

By Hussein Lumumba Amin
09-Nov-2016

Informative 2015 article on trade between Africa,.Europe, and China: europesworld.org/2015/07/02/china-contributing-europe-africas-economic-future/#.WBET1jNw1i8

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