Nations engage in international trade because they benefit from doing so and the gains from trade arise because trade allows countries to specialise their production in a way that allocates all resources to their most productive use. Trade plays an important role in achieving this allocation because it frees each and every country’s residents from having to consume goods in the same time combination in which the domestic economy can produce them.
China’s growing presence in Africa has increasingly become a topic for debate in the international system and among economists as well as policy analysts. China’s presence in Africa and its relations with African countries is primarily driven by economic interests and practical political considerations,
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The problems that the SSA face is that of China imports to Africa. The challenges that has been identified about mercantilism in Sub-Saharan Africa is that Chinese trade is undermining the local commerce and local manufacturing in these states by importing its cheap products.
As result of this cheap imports from China, many factories and markets has been closed down, and one of the factory that was closed was in Togo, the textile factory (Lyons and Brown, 2010:776). Most of market traders complains that Chinese copy their cloth design and produce more products cheaply and also sell them at a cheaper price. Since the Chinese sell their products at a lower cost most of consumers go for their products because they are able to afford them compared to the one of good
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AUTHORS WHO WROTE FROM AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT MERCANTILISM IN AFRICA
According to Sun (2014:1) China’s activities in Africa are often characterised as evil when they are seen as representing China’s selfish pursuit for natural resources and damaging Africa’s effort to improve its governance and building a sustainable future. Africa is seen primarily as a source of natural resources and market opportunities to fuel China’s domestic growth and development. The Chinese trade with African, especially the Sub-Saharan Africa only account for a tiny percentage of China’s overall foreign economic, in that China’s investment and trade in Africa do not them since African remain poor.
Sun agrees with Lyons and Brown on the impacts of trade between China and Sub-Saharan Africa. Sun (2014:6) states that Chinese manufacturing industries enjoy the advantage of producing textile, electronics and other products at a low prices, which fits the market demand of the less developed African countries. Therefore, the products imported from China affect the income and profit of traders market in Africa. Sun (2014:6), contends that China seeks to upgrade its industrial economy and move up in the global supply chain, while Africa with its vast and untapped labour resources is identified as an ideal location for China’s labour intensive industries. By relocating low-skilled jobs and labour intensive industries to Africa, China seeks more capital-intensive, high-tech and jobs to improve its own