PERFORMANCE AND PATTERNS OF AFRICAN
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ASIAN TRADE AND INVESTMENT FLOWS
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While exporting mostly raw materials to Asia, Africa imports mostly
manufactured goods from Asia, including machinery, transport equipment,
textiles, apparel, footwear, and manufactured materials. Light industrial products account for 46 percent of Africa’s
total imports from Asia, including food, pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, apparel, and footwear. Cotton fabric is the leading African imported item from Asian countries. The other leading imports are machinery and transport equipment, accounting for almost one-third of all imports from Asia (table A. The leading products in this category are automobiles and motorcycles. While Africa’s primary commodity exports to Asia account for 86 percent of its total exports to Asia, its processed imports, including manufactured
products and food products, account for 80 percent of its total imports from Asia. As in the case of Africa’s exports to Asia, the structure of imports from
Asia is also similar to the structure of overall African imports from the world. Table 2.3 shows that 62 percent of Africa’s merchandise imports
TABLE 2.3
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