*Is China’s Zero-Tariff Strategy the Catalyst for Africa’s Industrial Rise?* Africa stands on the verge of a transformation - industrialisation, job creation, and diversification are within reach thanks to China’s sweeping zero‐tariff initiative. Announced at a summit in Changsha on June 12, Beijing declared it will eliminate all import duties on goods from 53 African nations, extending deep market access even to middle-income economies such as Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and Zimbabwe. China also pledged technical assistance and marketing support for less-developed nations like Tanzania and Mali, ensuring they’re not left behind. Trade between China and Africa is already robust - surpassing $282 billion in 2022 and growing steeply since 2000 - yet lopsided, with China running a $62 billion surplus in 2024. By slashing tariffs, Beijing signals a pivot toward export-led industrialisation in African economies, giving local manufacturers, agro-processors, and artisan sectors their chance to shine. This transformation is tangible in Zimbabwe. Its tobacco sector, a national cash-crop that accounted for up to 11 percent of GDP in recent years and supports roughly 3 million people, has been reborn through Chinese-backed contract farming. China now buys almost 40–54 percent of Zimbabwe’s flue-cured tobacco - the “golden leaf” - supplying vital seeds, fertilisers, technical training, and interest-free or low-interest loans via Tian Ze and others under the China National Tobacco Company umbrella. Production has soared from roughly 50 million kilograms in the early 2000s to record outputs in excess of 296 million kg in 2023, helping farmers rake in over $600 million annually. With zero tariffs in place, Zimbabwean tobacco processors will finally be able to scale operations, upgrade facilities, and integrate into global value-chains without burdensome duties - transforming a longstanding cash crop into a driver of long-term industrial development. The contrast with the United States under Donald Trump could not be starker. In April, the U.S. slapped a blanket 10 percent tariff on all imports, then escalated to punitive surcharges ranging from 18 percent on Zimbabwe, 31 percent on South Africa, to a staggering 50 percent on Lesotho - a nation whose GDP is just $2 billion, and whose textile and diamond sectors employ tens of thousands. This authoritarian trade approach - capricious and isolated - shattered the promise of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and launched scores of African workers toward unemployment. Zimbabwe’s government even scrapped its own tariffs on U.S. imports in an effort to appease Trump, a move the White House dismissed as "cheating," brutally exposing America’s unreliability. China’s approach, by contrast, is methodical and developmental, built atop decades of FOCAC engagement: billions in loans, financing for cotton factories, agricultural machinery, Zimbabwe’s Kariba hydro dam and more - all reinforcing industrial capacity before the tariff-free era even began. Beijing’s removal of tariffs is not charity - it’s strategic. It shifts the balance of trade, brings African producers into global supply chains, deepens value addition, and strengthens political and economic bonds through reciprocity. When Washington slammed the door, China flung it wide open. The U.S. embraced unpredictable protectionism; China chose planning with partnership, discipline, and vision. For Zimbabwe - and the continent - the choice is clear: between the wrecker’s hammer of banana-republic economics and the builder’s crane of industrialisation. Africa’s future could hinge on this moment - and China has staked its claim. Source: https://x.com/dereckgoto/status/1934871864641228840