South China monitoring post, 19 Fébruary 2026
by Jevans Nyabiage
China says it won’t seek reciprocity with South Africa on zero-tariff policy
Envoy makes the pledge as Beijing prepares to roll out tax-free access to the Chinese market for goods from 53 African nations.
China will not seek reciprocity in its latest trade agreement with South Africa, its ambassador said, as Beijing prepares to roll out an expanded zero-tariff policy for African nations from May 1.
The deal means South African goods can enter the Chinese market tax-free without any requirement for Pretoria to reciprocate by lowering its own import duties on products from China.
“In this process, China will fully accommodate South Africa’s interests and will not seek reciprocity,” Chinese ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng said on Saturday.
It came after President Xi Jinping gave an assurance to the African Union Summit – held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last week – that China would fully implement the zero-tariff measures for 53 African nations from May 1.
The Chinese envoy’s remarks have eased concerns in South Africa over a potential requirement for a reciprocal agreement that could have hurt its car industry.
Beijing’s economic sweetener comes as some African nations – facing higher tariffs in the United States – are seeking to diversify their markets. The US imposed a 30 per cent blanket tariff on South African imports last year.
In a message sent to the African Union Summit on Saturday, Xi pledged to expand Chinese market access for African products with an upgraded “green channel” and through other measures.
“These are new measures by China to expand high-level opening-up and will undoubtedly provide new opportunities for African development and for China and Africa to jointly pursue their dream of modernisation,” Xi said.
Early this month, South African trade minister Parks Tau signed a framework economic partnership agreement with China during a visit to Beijing. That is expected to lay the foundation for an “early harvest” deal – a step towards a full free-trade agreement – by the end of March.
Tau has said the early harvest agreement would include “safeguards” to protect South African industries, particularly the automotive sector.
Pretoria had in January threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese and Indian vehicles to curb a surge of imports from the two nations.
East African nation Kenya has already signed an early harvest agreement with China that allows its products to enter the Chinese market duty-free.
That preliminary arrangement secured zero-tariff treatment for 98.2 per cent of Kenyan exports into China while negotiations continued for 100 per cent market access for all remaining products.
Kai Xue, a Beijing-based corporate lawyer who advises on foreign direct investment and cross-border financing, said an early harvest agreement would also benefit Chinese firms in South Africa.
According to Xue, non-reciprocal tariff-free access across Africa aimed to reinforce the viability of special economic zones and industrial parks where many Chinese firms were operating.
He said that kind of market access was needed for export-oriented factories to take off. Xue gave the example of Ethiopia, where Chinese-backed textile and light manufacturing exports have been successful.
Officials in Pretoria had feared that its participation in the Southern African Customs Union could be a deal-breaker for Beijing because another member, eSwatini, maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
But Beijing’s commerce ministry in November said it would work with individual nations on trade agreements rather than the bloc.
According to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, the economy’s primary sector – particularly farmers and miners – would be the biggest beneficiaries of the trade deal.
He said the agricultural sector had struggled for some time due to higher tariffs in China compared to competitors such as Peru, Chile and Australia that already had free-trade agreements in place.
South Africa is China’s largest African trading partner and exports products such as wine, fruit, grains, rooibos tea and a range of minerals to the Asian economic giant.
Two-way trade in 2025 stood at US$53.58 billion, with South African exports to China accounting for US$30.58 billion of that total.
“The dilemma, however, lies with other sectors of our economy, such as the auto industry and manufacturing, among others, where deeper, reciprocal tariff reductions with China would pose significant competition,” Sihlobo said.
