CHINA’S COVID RESTRICTIONS CREATES BARRIER FOR AFRICAN TRADERS

By Agencies

Coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions have started easing in most countries around the world. Most of the nations that have brought the situation under control are now opening up every sector in their respective nations, including tourism and foreign business avenues. 

However China again has emphasized upon the fact that it is extremely different from the others; even when it comes to the easing of lockdown and restrictions for foreign travellers.

Southern China has always attracted businesspeople from all around the world for quite a long time, with a great many African investors and traders making a beeline for urban areas like Guangzhou to pursue good deals on products. Therefore, Guangzhou got home to a flourishing local area of Africans who created a life for themselves in the city, often working, studying, and trading within the bounds; to such an extent that there were non-stop departures from multiple points in Africa to the manufacturing centers in China.

Yet, the Chinese embassy in Nairobi said it almost suspended flights recently when a developing number of positive cases had been recognized among the travelers taking non-stop departures from Kenya to China. Those going from Kenya presently need two separate negative nucleic acids results and two separate negative IgM antibody test results to board. 

Chinese Embassy representative Huang Xueqing said that the pandemic is still a major problem all over the world and that China faces more dangers from people who might be travelling to the country than domestic cases being on the rise.

“Under such circumstances, China has strengthened pre-departure prevention and control measures for travellers coming to China since November,” Huang said.

Businessmen across Africa have been badly affected by this wanton measure taken by China which makes it mandatory for conducting those many tests before being allowed to travel. Even if they chose to not consider the cost of all the tests, which actually weigh too much on the pockets, the hassle that goes behind all of it is simply unnecessary. Most nations do require a negative test result before letting someone board for their country, but taking only one test is usually enough.

Through this China is ensuring that it creates a bad reputation for itself. People will think multiple times before taking a trip to China. 

The African businessmen brought in a lot of revenue for the Chinese manufacturers when they bought their produce, with this being affected, a major chunk of the Chinese production sector, which sustained through foreign businesses, will take a massive hit. 

Several times in a year, Karanja, a trader and head of the Importers and Small Traders Association of Kenya, would take a non-stop departure from the Kenyan capital to southern China to source the wide assortment of merchandise, from hardware to gadgets and beauty items, accessible in the manufacturing center. 

For people like Karanja, this has come to a halt.

Before even getting on a plane, individuals who are bound to travel from from Africa to China currently need to show a minimum of two negative tests for the Covid from various research facilities 48 hours before flight. After reaching China they’ll have to undergo a mandatory quarantine, which would waste both their times and money.

Traders and businesspeople like Karanja say that the extreme measures taken by China in view of the pandemic are making it troublesome and costly for them to utilize the standard shipping routes.

Denis Juru, president of the South Africa-based International Cross-Border Traders Association, said that in the current circumstances that have been imposed by China, the online business model is perhaps the only way to sustain everything.

But there is a difference between the online business and physically going to the manufacturing hubs to make proposals, not mentioning the fact that physical business is more impactful and has lesser chances of trading goods that are not up to the mark. 

It’s only a matter of time before countries give up on China’s rudimentary policies and stop making economic exchanges. China is slowly digging its own financial grave. As a nation, it cannot survive all by itself and become a hermit state; it needs the other countries, even if it is to follow its dreams of becoming an economic super power.

Meanwhile, the other nations should look for other places in the world, with similar manufacturing capabilities as China, but with less stringent measures that would look into a sustainable growth model.