China-Africa Trade Relations

The objectives of this study are to capture the extent to which impacts of Chinäs economic growth are transmitted to Africa both positively and negatively, through the bilateral trading relationship and to provide some policy advice as to how African countries may maximize the economic benefits and minimize the costs from this increasingly important trade channel. The conclusion from this analysis of Africäs trading profile and performance is that its exports are determined by oil exports and will be in at least the medium term future, the value of these oil exports is determined almost solely by the cartel-controlled OPEC quota, a quota in which some African countries as member of OPEC have some influence upon, and finally that the oil trading relationship with China is a complex one in that it is inexorably linked to Chinese investment and aid in African countries, with the latter having been expanded upon and unpacking in the companion papers on China-Africa aid relations and China-Africa investment relations.