A structural trade deficit for Cameroon.
Since 2005, Asia has been presented by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as sub-Saharan Africa’s leading trading partner. Indeed, over the past two decades, trade between these two regions has far outpaced that between Europe and Africa. While China is undeniably the driving force behind this development, it is not the only actor. These include India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, whose trade with Cameroon continues to grow. With China, the trade balance recorded a deficit of 714.3 billion CFA francs in 2023, after 602.6 billion CFA francs in 2022, a worsening of 18.5%. Over the last seven years, this balance has been structurally in deficit; the average annual deficit amounts to 302.5 billion CFA francs over this period. With 18.9% of the market share, China is positioned as the leading supplier in 2023. In terms of imports, China holds 18.9% of Cameroon’s market share in 2023, occupying first place ahead of India and France. The main products imported from China are herbicides and germination inhibitors (4.9%), new tyres used for buses and trucks (3.1%), ceramic tiles and tiles (2.7%), polyethylene terephthalate (1.8%), cylinders, bottles, flasks, jars, jars, tubular glass packaging (1.6%) and flat-rolled iron/non-alloy steel products
(1.6%).
China is Cameroon’s fourth largest customer in 2023
In 2023, export earnings to this trading partner increased slightly by 33.9%, from 173.2 billion CFA francs in 2022 to 231.9 billion CFA francs. These revenues come mainly from exports of mining and forestry products: crude oil (57.8%), liquefied natural gas (10.5%), raw, unsquared Okan or Adoum wood (6.3%), and sapele wood, sawn/boned longitudinally (3.7%).
