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When Viewed in Context, Africa’s Trade With China is Very Small

by Eric Olander

Although China is by far Africa’s largest bilateral trading partner with two-way trade this year on track to exceed last year’s $187 billion. In the January-August period, according to Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming, China-Africa trade is up 40.5% to $139.1 billion.

But to China, Africa’s contribution to its global trade balance is actually quite modest. In this same period, China has done a total of $3.83 trillion of trade with Africa’s share accounting for just 3.6%.

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