Trade between Africa and China reached $273.94 billion between January and August 2026. Over this period, Chinese exports to the continent grew faster than imports from Africa, bringing the African trade deficit to $80.07 billion, up 34.48 per cent year-on-year.

According to Chinese General Customs Administration data, China's exports to Africa amounted to $177 billion, up 25.8 per cent from the first eight months of 2025. In the opposite direction, Chinese imports from the continent reached $96.93 billion, an increase of 19%.

The gap between the two flows accounts for most of the increase in the deficit, while the overall trade volume increased by 23.3% over one year.

However, the composition of trade remains very unbalanced. African exports to China consist mainly of minerals, hydrocarbons and agricultural products, which are often poorly processed.

Conversely, Chinese goods transported to African markets include machinery, equipment, electronics and various manufactured goods. This structure results in flows of raw materials from the continent and higher value-added products entering African markets.

The imbalance arose as China extended its tariff-free regime on 1 May 2026 to 20 African countries not classified as least developed countries (LDCs). The 33 African LDCs concerned had already benefited from this treatment since December 2024.

For the African Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank), however, tariff access is not enough to increase African exports: the development of value chains, the local processing of raw materials and the improvement of infrastructure and logistics corridors, including rail links, dry ports and storage capacity, remain crucial to increasing the value of products exported to China.