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Coffee, chillies and cashews: a new recipe to spice up China-Africa trade relations
Blanket relationship with all African nations is viewed as a precedent for partners like the EU
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As China’s relationship with African countries deepens, the country’s influence is spreading into more areas. In our series Jevans Nyabiage looks at how Beijing’s blanket import clearance for three African food products will affect ties between them, and the potential effects for other governments around the world.
Beijing is rewriting its trade playbook by bypassing years of protracted bilateral negotiations to grant continent-wide market access for African coffee, chillies and cashews.
The streamlined “green channel”, announced by China’s General Administration of Customs, applies uniform sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards to all 53 African countries with diplomatic ties to Beijing. Products meeting baseline requirements on pest risks, processing and safety are now immediately eligible, eliminating the need for individual country-by-country trade deals.
Dried chillies were chosen for the launch of the blanket clearance framework in May. Rwanda pioneered chilli exports to China in 2021, and Uganda followed earlier this year with an 11-tonne shipment to Shanghai.
The growing appetite for fiery hotpots in Hunan and Sichuan provinces has fuelled demand for the East African varieties prized by Chinese food processors for their heat and low moisture content.
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