Study On The Impacts Of COVID-19 On China-Africa

COVID-19-induced trade barriers between China and Africa are massive and very significant.Measures to actively facilitate trade are increasingly seen as essential to improve the free movement of goods across the globe.This study estimated the impact of COVID-19 on China-Africa trade,particularly the SADC member states,during the period from April2020 to April 2021.The study applied a gravity model on panel data for 16 SADC Member States and a Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood(PPML)estimator and found that to a greater extent,COVID-19-induced lockdowns and COVID-19 infections negatively impacted trade between China and SADC member states by reducing trade by 3.95% and 1.41%respectively.Policies towards expediting the automation of border systems and production processes to minimize human interference and improve immunity to lockdown conditions should be targeted.Enhancement of public expenditure programs and encouraging private investment in the health sector to improve the countries’ resilience to pandemics is paramount.Finally,governments,should not implement preventive measures in isolation from economic development policies,rather,they should be implemented simultaneously to improve national economic growth and enhance trade.