Tanzania orders Chinese out of Dar es Salaam market

Chinese traders in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam have been give 30 days to stop trading in a busy market.

The deputy industry minister said Chinese businessmen were allowed into the country as investors, but not as "vendors or shoe-shiners".

Lazaro Nyalandu said these jobs could[b] "be carried out by locals"[/b], Tanzania's Citizen paper quotes him as saying.

A BBC reporter says there are many foreigners trading illegally in Tanzania, especially from China.

They have opened up many small retail and wholesale shops, the BBC's Hassan Mhelela in Dar es Salaam says.

But the Chinese traders are sometimes resented for their business acumen, he says.

Mr Nyalandu made the comments at Kariakoo market, which the government wants to become an export centre for the East African nation.

He also said that Tanzania was about to do a deal with the Chinese government to ensure that goods imported from China meet international standards, Tanzania's Guardian newspaper reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12138811

these chinamen are ubiquitous

buzugee:

these chinamen are ubiquitous

hehe it seems they are 'invading' everywhere

asha 80:

hehe it seems they are 'invading' everywhere

right ?

Reminds me of certain tribe being chased all over Nigeria because they have too much competitive advantage.

Anyway, GOOD MOVE. The spirit of Julius Nyerere is still alive. These Chinese nuccas need to go and get visas.

And if the ban doesn't cause the locals to enter those businesses?

Not clear to me that this will have a positive overall impact.

We need to do this to the Lebanese. No offense to any Lebanese individuals who frequent Nairaland.

^-- Why? How is it a net positive to kick out highly productive people? Like, I don't see the argument for it.

eku_bear:

^-- Why? How is it a net positive to kick out highly productive people? Like, I don't see the argument for it.

Because it protects local industry. How can locals compete with foreigners who flood the market with cheap goods? It also keeps a nation's wealth within a nation. That is what India did to protect their local industries. I do not believe in a reckless laissez-faire economy. You have to protect local industry. Most nations do this except African states for some reason.

It is similar to us not subsidizing our agricultural sector and looking to other nations to feed our people.

If everyone is taxed and pay their taxes then there will be no need for all these We vs You stuff going on.

Well, the Chinese shoeshines there certainly aren't benefiting from imports. If Chinese are beating locals at shining shoes, then that reflects poorly on the locals, not the Chinese 

Anyway, it seems implausible that all of the Chinese traders there are importers. Those who buy and sell within the country certainly shouldn't be curtailed, in my opinion (unless their documents are not in order, or something.)

I do agree that uncontrolled importation can be harmful, but this is a separate issue from banning a certain ethnic group from competing. . .

Eku Bear, I am with you 100 percent.

I guess you haven't been to many African markets then.   From Lome to Nairobi. The Chinese have flooded our markets with their cheap/poorly made goods. And these Chinese wholesalers who have connections from mainland China are simply destroying local economies by flooding the market.

This is a good move by Tanzania. I am glad to see this country following in the spirit of their founding father Julius Nyerere. It is time for African states to protect their local industries.

This is not about beating locals at shoe shining, because I have yet to see a Chinese person shoe shining an African shoes. I don't know where you got that analogy.  This is about Chinese retailers and wholesalers. I would even put a quota on all Chinese goods.

I got the shoeshine example from the article.

Anyway, I'm fine with high import duties to prevent foreign (Chinese, in this case) goods from flooding the market.

But presumably you'll also at the same time need to invest money to make your locals more productive so they can compete and so the import duties can slowly be reduced.

Perhaps Tanzania needs to invest more in basic infrastructure or something so that a t-shirt made 1000s of miles away in China, loaded onto a large, expensive ship, etc are not cheaper than goods made locally   

(If you didn't get my latter point, I'm again criticizing the poor job African countries have done that a wealthier country like China is still able to flood poorer Africa with low-tech goods. . .)

eku_bear:

I got the shoeshine example from the article.

Anyway, I'm fine with high import duties to prevent foreign (Chinese, in this case) goods from flooding the market.

But presumably you'll also at the same time need to invest money to make your locals more productive so they can compete and so the import duties can slowly be reduced.

Perhaps Tanzania needs to invest more in basic infrastructure or something so that a t-shirt made 1000s of miles away in China, loaded onto a large, expensive ship, etc are not cheaper than goods made locally   

(If you didn't get my latter point, I'm again criticizing the poor job African countries have done that a wealthier country like China is still able to flood poorer Africa with low-tech goods. . .)

African states need to invest in basic infrastructure. This is something that I agree with you with. But they do not need to invest money in local markets. The reason why I say this is, because in most African states, the taxes are so low, that it doesn't cost African's that much money to create a start-up company. Africa is fertile ground for entrepreneurs. But they cannot compete with their markets being the dumping ground for Chinese goods that the U.S. doesn't want.

This occurs throughout Africa. FYI, Chinese goods are much cheaper than local goods found throughout the world, because of their large manufacturing base has flooded the world with their goods.

No offense to any Lebanese individuals who frequent Nairaland

most of them dont identify themselves as such.

This "cannot compete" excuse is a copout.

The per capita GDP of China is several times that of Tanzania. Labor is more expensive in China than Tanzania. That somehow it is still more cost effective to buy shirts imported from China suggests that something is absolutely broken in Tanzania.

Yes, put up heavy import duties to give yourself breathing room to fix the problem. But whatever is broken needs to be fixed, rather than constantly whining and complaining that you cannot compete.

As an extreme example, it would be as if farmers in Luxembourg (GDP per capita there is what, well north over $50k?) were able to beat the farmers in my village in Ekiti (GDP per capita probably $800-1K or so) at producing yam targeted for the Ekiti market. If something like that happened, it would suggest gross incompetence on the part of my village. Not that the Luxembourg farmers are some sort of bullies.

That's their business. We have ours

It is not a copout to say they cannot compete with those cheaper goods. It is purely economics. Africans will choose the vendor that has the lower prices. Chinese vendors' goods are much more cheaper than African goods locally made.

You cannot go by the per capita GDP of China to discuss how their goods flood local African markets. They are also an industrializing power, in which they have the manufacturing capabilities of producing a lot of goods cheaper than the African manufacturing base. You just used a red herring my brother.

And the Tanzanian government is trying to fix the problem. By kicking out the Chinese vendors who to respect local laws, and they are also pressuring the Chinese government as well with a new trade deal. This is the right move.

you make the product, you come in to the country and sell whole sale, and you still do retail in the local market, all in another person's country hmmmm. how in the world do you want the local business to compete? the inhabitants of the country are turned into onlookers, where else can this happen if not africa, and you still have dumb fools applauding and approving it.

for ur information it,s already happening in nigeria, where u have many chinese flooding the market with their cheap products and doing retail at the same time, while their embassy deny the nigerian business men visa from bringing the same products. pathetic!

If everyone is taxed and pay their taxes then there will be no need for all these We vs You stuff going on.

Well spoken

for your information it,s already happening in nigeria, where u have many chinese flooding the market with their cheap products and doing retail at the same time, while their embassy deny the nigerian business men visa from bringing the same products. pathetic!

Not only in Nigeria, but the chinese are seizing the market in the West also. The United states is currently indebted and  borrowed billions of dollars from china.

Well, that they'll flood the American markets makes sense, since they can produce things at lower prices than Americans can (compare minimum wage in the US to the average income of a Chinese factory worker.)

But that they can also dominate the markets of countries with lower incomes (especially African countries) suggests poor management (or outright incompetence) on the part of the African countries.