Kabul: Beijing’s envoy to Kabul said Thursday that China will offer the Afghan Taliban access to its huge construction, energy and consumer sectors without tariffs, as the resource-rich and diplomatically isolated regime seeks to build its markets.
Beijing has sought to develop its relations with the Taliban since it took control of Afghanistan in 2021, but like all governments, it has refrained from officially recognizing the movement’s government amid international concern about its human rights record and the record of women and girls.
But the impoverished country could offer a wealth of sought-after mineral resources to bolster Beijing’s supply chain security.
Selling Afghanistan’s lithium, copper and iron reserves to the world’s largest buyer of commodities would help the Taliban prop up its faltering economy, which the United Nations says has “fundamentally collapsed,” and provide a much-needed revenue stream as the country’s central bank abroad. Reserves remain frozen.
“China will provide Afghanistan with 100 percent tariff-free treatment on tariff lines,” Zhao Xing, the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote on his official account late Thursday, above a photo of himself meeting with acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Kabir.
Afghanistan exported $64 million worth of goods to China last year, according to Chinese customs data, nearly 90 percent of which was peeled pine, but the Taliban government said it was determined to find foreign investors willing to help it diversify its economy and profits. Of its mineral resources.
Data show the country did not export any goods to China last year, but Zhao has regularly posted photos of himself meeting with Taliban officials responsible for mining, oil, trade and regional connectivity since his appointment last September.
Several Chinese companies operate in Afghanistan, including Metallurgical of China Ltd., which has held talks with the Taliban administration about plans for a potential massive copper mine, and was highlighted in a Chinese state media article in August about Chinese companies… Rebuild Afghanistan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during a Beijing summit of more than 50 African leaders in September that, as of December 1, goods entering his country’s $19 trillion economy from “least developed countries that… “It has diplomatic relations with China” for import duties, without giving details.
Vice Minister of Commerce Tang Wenhong then reiterated the policy on Wednesday at a news conference in Beijing on preparations for China’s major annual import expo.
The Afghan Embassy in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment.
This was stated by the acting Afghan Minister of Commerce last October Reuters The Taliban wants to officially join Xi’s leading infrastructure initiative, the Belt and Road.
Kabul has also asked China to allow it to be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a $62 billion connectivity project linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar port.