China’s envoy to Kabul said on Thursday that it would provide the Afghan Taliban with tariff-free access to its vast construction, energy, and consumer sectors as the ailing, resource-rich but diplomatically isolated regime looks to expand its markets.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, Beijing has attempted to strengthen its ties with the group. However, Beijing, like all governments, has chosen not to officially recognize the Taliban’s government due to international concern regarding the group’s human rights record and its treatment of women and girls.
However, Beijing’s supply chain security could be enhanced by the impoverished nation’s abundance of highly sought-after mineral resources.
What’s more, selling Afghanistan’s lithium, copper and iron stores to the world’s greatest items purchaser would assist the Taliban with setting up their sickly economy, which the Unified Countries says has “fundamentally imploded”, and give a genuinely necessary income stream as the country’s abroad national bank holds stay frozen.
On his official X account late on Thursday, Zhao Xing, the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote, above a photo of him meeting acting deputy prime minister Abdul Kabir, “China will offer Afghanistan zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines.”
According to Chinese customs data, Afghanistan exported goods worth $64 million to China last year. Nearly 90 percent of those goods were shelled pine nuts. However, the Taliban government has stated that it is determined to locate foreign investors who are willing to assist it in diversifying its economy and making profits from its mineral wealth.
The nation sent out no items to China last year, the information shows, however Zhao has routinely posted photographs of him meeting Taliban authorities liable for mining, oil, exchange and territorial availability since his arrangement last September.
The Metallurgical Corp of China Ltd., which was highlighted in an August feature in Chinese state media on Chinese companies rebuilding Afghanistan, has held talks with the Taliban administration regarding plans for a potentially huge copper mine.
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the announcement at a summit in Beijing for more than 50 African leaders that, starting on December 1, goods coming from “the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China” would not be subject to import duties.
Vice commerce minister Tang Wenhong then reiterated the policy on Wednesday at a Beijing press conference about the preparations for China’s annual flagship import expo.
A request for clarification was made, but the Afghanistan embassy in Beijing did not respond.
Afghanistan’s acting commerce minister told Reuters in October that the Taliban wanted to officially join Xi’s flagship infrastructure initiative, the “Belt and Road.”
