African countries should:

1. Participate in trade fairs and China’s import fairs. African countries should actively attend national and regional import fairs with key national products and identify the ones that have strong demand and interest from Chinese buyers. This demand should be recorded in a systematic way — through surveys and query forms. For products that demonstrate strong demand but are subject to tariffs, African countries should actively advocate for preferential treatment.

2. Embed an export strategy into industrialization plans. As Africa increasingly attracts Chinese FDI into its manufacturing sector, it should actively encourage investment into sectors with strong export potential, and actively work to establish demand agreements from key buyers within China.(https://www.daowen.com)

China’s opening-up in the 1980s revolutionized commerce. Chinese goods have proliferated in markets everywhere. Africans have such an intimate experience of the effects of China’s opening up and manufacturing boom, that it has led to China becoming the number one study-abroad destination for Anglophone Africans.

Similar to my desire back in 2010 to study Mandarin, many other Africans recognize that with China’s significant trade and investment in the continent, speaking Mandarin is essential.This is now reflected in the decision of some countries, such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, to introduce Mandarin in public schools. But now, the relationship has reached a pivotal point.In order for it continue to be beneficial to both sides, China should respond to the US’s increasing protectionism with a new found zeal for free markets and trade. China should reduce tariffs and support African countries to benefit from trade in much of the way that it did. And African countries must increasingly realize the value of China not simply as a producer of goods and products its needs, but as a market for value-added products and advocate for more openness and support to capture the market opportunities China provides. Such a transformation is possible but it requires a concerted effort and a belief that products made in Africa can and should be as easily available in China, as products made in China products are available in Africa.