Sourcing in Taiwan

TAIWAN'S potential as an industrial resource for Africa has yet to be fully maximised, as Taipei has yet to forge stronger trade and economic ties with most countries in that continent.

Taiwan's strained relations with Mainland China in the past have somehow hampered the island-nation's bid to aggressively enter offshore markets and formalise bilateral trade and economic pacts with them. The Taiwanese Government has looked on the signing of the economic cooperation framework with China in 2010 as ending its isolation, but movement has been slow in negotiating trade treaties with its Asian neighbors, and the aggressive free trade agreement strategy by South Korea, Taiwan's main trade competitor, has been causing it concern.

In Africa, Taiwan's documented trade statistics are at best sporadic and limited to a number of countries, including South Africa, Tanzania, and Nigeria.

Taiwan and South Africa established diplomatic ties in 1949. The ties lasted and grew throughout the apartheid era in South Africa and officially ended in January 1998 when South African President Nelson Mandela recognised the People's Republic of China. Despite the recognition of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and South Africa maintained a trade relationship. According to South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry, bilateral trade in 2011 totaled $2.35 billion (South Africa's exports to Taiwan at $1.17 billion and South Africa's imports from Taiwan at $1.18 billion).

Taiwan's exports to South Africa include mineral fuels, bituminous substances, mineral waxes, nuclear reactors, boilers machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical machinery and equipment, sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, plastics, vehicles other than railway or tramway rollingstock, articles of iron or steel, iron and steel, manmade filaments, organic chemicals, and manmade staple fibers. Meanwhile, South Africa exports bituminous coal, aluminium (not alloyed), titanium ores and concentrates, non-alloy pig iron, chemical wood pulp, dissolving grades, copper waste, and scrap to Taiwan, its 15th largest export destination in 2011. It also shipped out 1,500 new three-series South African built BMWs to Taiwan last year.

In Tanzania, trade volumes with Taiwan have grown by almost 80% by the end of 2010 to reach $55 million with a surplus in favour of Taiwan. The tripled growth of Tanzanian exports of mainly cotton, gold, and sisal to Taiwan in the past years has been attributed to the Asian country's special preferential tariff agreement being extended on 400 items from most underdeveloped countries, including Tanzania. Sesame seeds, cocoa beans, wet goatskins, seashells, waste plastic, and seaweeds also enjoy the preferential tariff treatment in the bilateral Trade.

Although Nigeria and Taiwan have been trading with each other for decades, formal economic and trade relationships were not established until 1992 when a memorandum of understanding was signed by the government of the two countries. Since then, economic and trade relationships between the two countries have flourished. Taiwan-Nigeria bilateral trade statistics showed that, between 1993 and 2002, Taiwan's exports to Nigeria have been fairly stable, with the lowest annual exports valued at $108 million in 1994 and the highest annual exports valued at $153 million in 2002.

Taiwan is a strategic platform connecting some of the largest economies, including the United States, Japan, and China. Based on International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics, Taiwan is currently the 26th largest economy in the world and consistently scores very high in global competitiveness rankings by leading economic organisations like the World Economic Forum,sneakers