Chong Quan, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce announced in Beijing today that China would grant tariff-free treatment to some goods exported to China by the Least Developed Countries in Africa from January 1, 2005 to expand the import from African countries and promote the further development of China-Africa bilateral trade.  

 

Chong Quan proclaimed that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao declared at the Second Ministerial Conference of FOCAC that China would grant tariff-free treatment to some goods exported to China by the Least Developed Countries in Africa. This is a weighty promise that China, as a developing country, based on its economic strength, made to aid the African countries' economic development in a sound way. From January 1,2005,the Chinese government will start administering tariff-free policy to some goods from the 25 least developing African countries that had already exchanged letters with the Chinese government on tariff-free treatment before December 31,2004.The 25 countries are the Republic of Benin,the Republic of Burundi,the Republic of Cape Verde,the Central African Republic,Union of Comoros,the Democratic Republic of Congo,the Republic of Djibouti, the State of Eritrea, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Liberia, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Mali, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Republic of Mozambique, the Republic of the Niger, the Rwandese Republic, the Republic of Sierra Leone, the Republic of the Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Togolese Republic, the Republic of Uganda and the Republic of Zambia. The commodities that will benefit from this treatment add up to 190 tariff items.

 

Chong Quan said, after the Chinese government promised to grant tariff-free treatment to some goods exported to China by the Least Developed Countries, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs etc. immediately took measures and actively put the promise into practice. Within a short time, China has concluded the exchange of letters with 25 relevant African countries on the list of tariff-free goods, rules of origin and the issuance and verification procedures of the certificate of origin. At present, China is pushing forward the remaining process with other countries that have not concluded the exchange of letters with China.

 

Chong Quan indicated that with the joint effort between China and Africa, the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides would surely develop further.

 

It is known that to help the Chinese enterprises obtain information in time, Ministry of Commerce will recently hold an explanatory conference on the policy of tariff-free treatment to some goods exported to China by the Least Developed Countries.