By Nellie Peyton.
South Africa’s trade with China has surged this year since Beijing introduced a zero-tariff scheme for qualifying African exports in May.
Chinese ambassador Wu Peng said at an event in Pretoria that South Africa’s exports were up nearly 25% year-on-year between May and August, while South Africa’s imports from China were up 23%.
South Africa has been seeking to rebalance its trade with China, its largest trading partner. In 2025, South Africa exported about 222 billion rand ($13.5 billion) of goods to China, and imported nearly twice that much, said Trade Minister Parks Tau.
South Africa’s exports to China include agricultural products as well as minerals and manufactured goods.
Ambassador Peng said he had heard South Africa’s demand to balance its trade and that he was confident “more and more South African high value-added products will enter the Chinese market in the future”.
Increasing exports to China is part of South Africa’s strategy to develop new markets as it faces a worsening relationship and potential trade barriers with the US.
The US has extended the duty-free African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) until 2028. But South Africa risks exclusion as President Donald Trump’s administration has taken issue with a number of its domestic and foreign policies and accused the government of persecuting white people, which it denies.
Trade Minister Tau said he expects an announcement in early November about whether South Africa will be cut out of AGOA, but that he remained “cautiously optimistic”.