۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Development of China-Africa and India-Africa commercial relations

۳٫ Main characteristics of China-Africa and India-Africa trade in goods

۴٫ Concluding remarks

References

The paper presents merchandise trade between China and Africa and between India and Africa over the period from 2000 to 2014. The analysis is based on the data retrieved from the UN Comtrade Database. Both, China and India have significantly increased their trade in goods with 54 African countries since the beginning of the 21st century. In the analysed period, China’s bilateral trade with Africa increased 21 times while India’s about 13 times. The Asian countries increased their merchandise trade with Africa mainly due to the development of South-South cooperation and diplomatic relations with the region, and combining trade with development assistance. So far the winner of the Sino-Indian trade competition in Africa is China. The value of China’s total trade with Africa surpassed India’s nearly 3 times in the years 2000-2014.

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Sino-Indian trade competition in Africa has been observed. Both, Asian giants have been intensively developing trade relations with African countries. Their fast economic growth and constantly increasing demand for natural resources, food, and new markets caused that resource-rich Africa became very important partner for them. China and India compete in Africa not only for strategic space but also for ensuring support on the international arena. The aim of the paper is to show the scale and trends in merchandise trade of China and India with 54 African countries in the years from 2000 to 2014. The analysis is based on the data retrieved from the UN Comtrade Database. Trade data for South Sudan are available from 2012 so in the study they are combined with data for Sudan and both countries are considered as one called Former Sudan. There are many studies on trade between two Asian giants and Africa in the 21st century. The expansion of China-Africa trade and its impact on African economies was analyzed by Large (2008), Baliamoune-Lutz (2011), Montinari and Prodi (2011), Obuah (2012), He (2013), and Kummer-Noormamode (2014). Trade between India and Africa was studied by Geda and Meskel (2008), Broadman (2008) and Roy (2014). Besides, theoretical framework of China-Africa relations was presented by Lee et al. (2007). In turn, Beri (2003) and Taylor (2012) focus on IndiaAfrica relations. The main contribution of this paper to the discussion on China-Africa and India-Africa trade in the 21st century is a comparison of scale and trends in trade of both Asian countries with Africa in the years, from 2000 to 2014.