China
China is one of Tanzania's largest trading partners, supplying, together with India, approximately 39% of Tanzania's imports and ranking as the second-largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.
China's economic footprint in Tanzania spans trade, investment, infrastructure, energy, and, more recently, tourism.
The relationship is anchored in a Bilateral Investment Treaty and a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement, providing the legal foundation for long-term Chinese capital deployment across strategic sectors.
Contents
China as a Top Trade Partner
Tanzania's trade is strategically diversified within an established framework where ten key partners, including India, China, UAE, and South Africa, account for over 73% of total trade.
The ten countries concentrating this trade are China, Switzerland, India, South Africa, the UAE, Kenya, the DRC, the United States, Comoros, and Vietnam[5].
Beyond Africa, Tanzania maintains strong trade relations with China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and India, its largest trading partners.
Key exports to these markets include minerals, agricultural products, and raw materials, while imports consist mainly of machinery, electronics, and industrial equipment.
Around 44% of Tanzanian exports, comprising minerals, tourism, coffee, cashew nuts, cotton, sisal, tobacco, tea, and cloves, are destined for Switzerland, India, South Africa, China, and Kenya.
China in Tanzania's Import Structure
China and India remain the primary sources of Tanzanian imports, together supplying approximately 39% of the country's imports, primarily machinery, technologies, and manufactured goods.
In 2025, total goods and services imports rose by 4.9% to USD 17,826.1 million.
This growth was largely driven by capital and intermediate goods, such as machinery and industrial supplies, which are essential to the country's industrialization agenda.
The oil import bill declined by 6.7% to USD 2,380.1 million due to the moderation of global oil prices, but capital goods sourced from China continued to underpin Tanzania's manufacturing and infrastructure build-out.
Chinese Exports Markets for Tanzanian Goods
In Asia, major markets, including China, India, Japan, Singapore, and the UAE, accounted for USD 2,840.3 million of Tanzanian exports in 2024.
Tanzania continues to supply established Far East markets, including South Korea, Indonesia, and China, with agricultural exports.
Agriculture accounted for 23.6% of total goods exports in 2025[4], with China serving as a primary importer of Tanzanian tobacco, cereals, pulses, and fruits such as avocados.
Gold exports, which rose by 37.4% to USD 4,697.6 million in 2025 and accounted for 45.7% of total goods exported, also feed into Asian demand.
China as a Leading Source of FDI
The top five sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Tanzania were the UAE, China, India, Singapore, and France.
Chinese capital has been concentrated in manufacturing, commercial buildings, transportation, tourism, and agriculture, the five sectors that attracted the highest number of investment projects[3].
Manufacturing continued to dominate both in the number of projects and the amount of capital invested, an area where Chinese industrial capacity is particularly aligned with Tanzania's industrialization agenda.
Chinese Participation in Strategic Infrastructure
China's most visible infrastructure engagement is through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), where China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) holds an 8% shareholding.
The other shareholders are TotalEnergies (62%), Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC, 15%), and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC, 15%).
Spanning 1,433 km, with 80% of its length within Tanzania, the pipeline will have a peak capacity of 246,000 bbls/day.
The project represents a USD 5 billion investment aimed at enhancing Government revenue, improving logistics, facilitating skills and technology transfer, and strengthening the trade corridor between Uganda and Tanzania.
EACOP is expected to be completed by July 2026, and integrates advanced fiber-optic cables that can increase the capacity of local operators, supporting wider and faster internet connectivity in both Uganda and Tanzania.
China as a Fast-Growing Tourism Source Market
In 2024, China entered the top 15 source markets for mainland Tanzania for the first time, accounting for 3.0% of arrivals.
This milestone was attributed to strategic Government promotion, including the launch of the "Amazing Tanzania" documentary in Beijing.
The film, featuring President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Zanzibar's President Hussein Ali Mwinyi, reached an estimated 1.2 billion viewers across China and neighboring regions.
Chinese visitors also recorded the highest average expenditure among the top 15 source markets, at USD 492 per person per night, well ahead of visitors from Canada (USD 346) and the United States (USD 345).
International tourist arrivals grew 7.1% to 2,294,495 in 2025, with service receipts reaching USD 7,316.8 million, and China represents the highest-yield incremental market within this mix.
Bilateral Legal and Policy Framework
Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)
Tanzania has signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with China, alongside Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, and Mauritius[1].
These treaties ensure fair and equitable treatment for investors, provide legal guarantees for the protection of investments, and establish mechanisms to resolve disputes between investors and the state.
Bilateral Trade Agreement
Tanzania maintains Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreements with key partners, including China and India, complementing the country's duty-free access to the U.S. under AGOA (extended to end-2028[2]) and to the EU under Everything But Arms (EBA).
The country also enjoys bilateral trade agreements with nations including China, India, and Russia, reinforcing its position as a key link between Africa and international markets.
Multilateral Protections
Tanzania's membership in the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and its WTO membership since 1995 provide Chinese investors with layered legal security in addition to the bilateral BIT.
Investment Opportunities Linked to China
Manufacturing remains the leading destination for Chinese FDI, with commercial buildings, transportation, tourism, and agriculture rounding out the top-five sectors by project count and capital deployed.
Export-driven industries targeting the Chinese market benefit from Export Processing Zones (EPZs) fiscal incentives, particularly for agricultural exports such as tobacco, cereals, pulses, avocados, cashews, coffee, and sisal.
Energy and hydrocarbons infrastructure offer continued opportunities, with the EACOP corridor and downstream logistics anchoring a USD 5 billion project pipeline connecting to global export markets.
Hospitality and tourism infrastructure present a fast-emerging opportunity, given Chinese visitors' USD 492 per-night average spend and the 1.2 billion-viewer reach of Government-led promotion in China.
ICT and connectivity investment along the EACOP fiber-optic corridor, together with the National ICT Broadband Backbone expansion, opens co-investment and equipment-supply opportunities for Chinese technology firms.
Last Update: May 2026
References
- https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/countries/222/tanzania-united-republic-of (Guide reference #7)
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6500 (Guide reference #28)
- https://www.tiseza.go.tz/uploads/documents/en-1765102868-Q1-BULLETIN%20JULY%20TO%20SEPT%20_compressed.pdf (Guide reference #53)
- https://www.bot.go.tz/Publications/Regular/Quarterly%20Economic%20Bulletin/en/2026020820330341.pdf (Guide reference #66)
- https://www.viwanda.go.tz/uploads/documents/en-1722423611-National%20Trade%20Policy%202003%20Edition%202023_compressed.pdf (Guide reference #133)
