AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

As the 2024 Sum­mit of the Fo­rum on Chi­na-Africa Co­op­er­a­tion (FO­CAC) kicks off, Chi­na has promised im­proved trade re­la­tions with all least de­vel­oped coun­tries by elim­i­nat­ing tar­iffs on their prod­ucts.

Chi­nese pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping made the an­nounce­ment on Thurs­day at the FO­CAC open­ing cer­e­mo­ny where 52 African na­tions gath­ered in Bei­jing.

"We have de­cid­ed to give all LD­Cs (least de­vel­oped coun­tries) hav­ing diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with Chi­na, in­clud­ing 33 coun­tries in Africa, ze­ro-tar­iff treat­ment for 100 per­cent tar­iff lines," the Chi­nese pres­i­dent said.

With Chi­na be­ing the first ma­jor de­vel­oped coun­try and econ­o­my to take this step, Xi not­ed that these ini­tia­tives are aimed at ad­dress­ing the his­tor­i­cal in­jus­tices of the West­ern ap­proach of mod­erni­sa­tion, which he says has 'in­flict­ed im­mense suf­fer­ings on de­vel­op­ing coun­tries.' Xi stressed that equal rights and op­por­tu­ni­ties for all coun­tries must be en­sured,

In his speech, he pledged $51 bil­lion to Africa over three years, to be used for in­fra­struc­ture, mil­i­tary aid and the cre­ation of one mil­lion jobs.

Giv­en that Chi­na and Africa ac­count for one-third of the world pop­u­la­tion, Xi not­ed that their al­liance and part­ner­ship over the past two decades should serve as a mod­el of co­op­er­a­tion, of­fer­ing new hope for least de­vel­oped coun­tries seek­ing to un­der­take mod­erni­sa­tion.