South Africa and China have reached a new stage in strengthening their economic relationships with the signing of a partnership agreement on the sidelines of the work of the Joint Commission on trade and the economy (JETC), organized this week. The document has been initialled by the South African Trade Minister, Parks Tau, and his counterpart Chinese, Wang Wentao In particular, it provides for duty-free access to customs for several South African exports to the Chinese market, all by promoting the increase of Chinese investments in South Africa.

Exchanges between the two delegations focused on the deepening of the bilateral economic partnership, the improvement of trade flows and stronger promotion of South African exports added value. The discussions also targeted sectors that were judged to be strategic by Pretoria and Beijing, such as industrialization, infrastructure development, agricultural trade, energies renewables and technological cooperation.

This agreement comes in a tense international context. for South Africa, which is facing a major trade dispute with United States, its second trading partner. Washington applies currently customs duties of 30% on certain South African products, affecting the competitiveness of several sectors.

Faced with this situation, the South African authorities accelerate their strategy of diversifying market opportunities, by turning more towards Asian markets. The objective is to obtain conditions more favorable trade for key sectors of the national economy, including mining, agriculture and the processing industry, while reducing dependence on traditional Western markets