ABSTRACT
China has been one of the engines of the world economy since the beginning of the present decade. Its appetite for raw materials has driven up commodity prices and thus helped to boost growth in Africa (Goldstein et al., 2006; Broadman, 2006, 2008). Trade between China and Africa increased seven-fold between 2000 and 2007, from ten billion US$ to 70 billion US$, making China the leading supplier of the African continent and its second-largest trading partner after the United States. This spectacular growth has halted the marginalization of Africa in world trade that began in 1980. Africa is of course only a modest trading partner for China, but it does have a larger share in China's external trade (3.5 percent) 1 than in world trade. Although trade between China and Africa comes under the heading of South-South trade, in structure it is closer to a North-South pattern of trade as China imports natural resources (oil and ores) and exports manufactured products. As the trade surpluses of the oil-exporting countries (Guinea, Angola, Nigeria, Sudan) are greater than the deficits of the 41 non oil-exporting countries (according to Chinese sources), Chinese-African trade has generated a surplus for Africa up to 2006. In 2007, while prices of natural resources’ surged, China ran a surplus in its trade with Africa.
