The Opportunities And Challenges Of Economic And Trade Cooperation Between China And South Africa

South Africa is a country with important influence in Africa.The economic and trade cooperation between China and South Africa is conducive to opening up the African market for China.Due to historical reasons,the economic and trade relationship between China and South Africa was suspended for several decades.It was not until the early 1990s that the two countries began to resume economic interactions.Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1998,the two countries have maintained friendly relations and conducted all-round economic cooperation.Especially since the beginning of the 21st century,bilateral economic and trade relations have developed more rapidly.The areas of investment and trade cooperation between China and South Africa are increasingly extensive,including energy construction,mining,infrastructure,equipment manufacture,finance and so on.In addition,there are tourism,telecommunications,marine exploration and other aspects of cooperation.In 2010,South Africa joined the BRICS.Taking advantage of the BRICS mechanism,South Africa has vigorously promoted the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation with China.Economic cooperation between China and South Africa is potential with rapid growth and strong complementation.But the commodity structure is simple,and the added value of goods is low.Moreover,trade frictions between the two countries are frequently due to different national interests.But in all,the prospects for development of economic cooperation will be good.China is the largest developing country in the world,and South Africa is a country with strong comprehensive strength in Africa compared to other African countries,so the two sides have special opportunities in economic and trade cooperation.The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation,BRICS and other cooperation platforms have brought opportunities to the development of bilateral economic and trade relations of the two countries.The strong political foundation and extensive cultural exchanges between the two countries are also conducive to the development of investment and trade cooperation.The investment environment of South Africa is relatively good among the African countries,with abundant natural resources,especially the export of mining industry ranking top among the world.The government of South Africa has also formulated foreign investment policies to support foreign enterprises to invest in South Africa.In particularly,the automobile industry has been an industrial chain in South Africa,which is better to investment.China implements the policy of "bringing in and going out" and encourages enterprises to invest and develop abroad.China has also implemented relevant tax refund policies,including preferential policies such as tariff reduction.China has a large population and the labor cost is low,so it is good for us to export for price.However,the economic cooperation between China and South Africa also faces some challenges.In recent years,all countries face the world economic downward pressure and the growth of global economy is sluggish.At the beginning of 2020,the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia around the world has affected the economic and trade development of China and South Africa seriously.In addition,the economic cooperation between the two countries faces challenges such as different standardization,asymmetric and high concentration of bilateral trade,single product structure and so on.The structure of import and export trade between China and South Africa is relatively simple.The trade between the two countries is mainly inter-industry trade with low technical level and added value.The mainly exports of South Africa are resource products,while China exports mainly manufactured products.China has great challenges in labor relations and human customs.Inadequate knowledge of South African trade policies and Labor laws for China may give rise to Labor disputes.Because of South African labor law,workers have the right of freedom about work.But as a matter of fact,this excessive freedom of employees often results in a weak position of employers when disputes arise.In recent years,South Africa's economic development has slowed down relatively and its economic level cannot be steadily improved,which brings challenges to its economic and trade cooperation with China.The export advantage declined and the account deficit increased.China and South Africa should make use of such platforms as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC)and BRICS to strengthen cooperation frameworks and strengthen cooperation between governments.On the one hand,China needs to improve the competitive advantage of export products.On the other hand,China needs to increase the import of non-primary resource products from South Africa to optimize the industrial structure.To expand the scope of trade,China and South Africa should strengthen cooperation in the field of mining and further increase strategic cooperation in Marine energy,wind energy,automobile retail products,agriculture,finance,tourism,communication and other fields.In order to reduce trade friction,Chinese enterprises should abide by international trade rules,restrain themselves with international economic rules and set up a good image of Chinese enterprises.They should pay close attention to the trend of the levy of anti-dumping duty in South Africa,and take a positive attitude to deal with it and safeguard our own interests when encountering anti-dumping litigation.All these suggestions are in order to promote the better economic development of the two countries and have greater competitiveness in the international arena.