Foreign trade figures of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Foreign Trade in Figures

The DRC is open to international trade, which represents 65.4% of its GDP (2020, World Bank). Former president Joseph Kabila’s government has established a series of reforms intended to improve the business climate and to diversify exports. With 80 million hectares of arable land and over 1,100 minerals and precious metals, the DRC has the potential to become one of the major exporting countries on the continent and a driver of African growth. The country's mainly exports refined copper (49.8%), cobalt (23.4%), copper ore (6.6%), crude petroleum (5.7%), and diamonds (2.9%); while it imports chiefly medicaments (4.9%), refined petroleum (3.9%), sulfuric acid (2.4%), stone processing machines (2.1%), and delivery trucks (2%).

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s key trading partners are China, Zambia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. The DRC is a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (ECGLC), and the WTO. Furthermore, in 2022, the country signed bilateral agreements on cooperation in various sectors with Turkey, including defense and security, infrastructure and transport, non-double taxation, and investment promotion.

The DRC's trade balance is structurally negative, but the takeover of the raw material prices plays in favour of the exports growth and of the rebalancing of current accounts. In the last few years, the country’s trade balance was positive. The merchandise trade surplus increased to USD 1.9 billion in 2020, as imports of goods amounted to USD 6.6 billion, while exports reached USD 14.1billion. That same year, exports of services amounted to USD 115 million and imports were worth USD 2.4 billion, resulting in a negative trade balance of USD 624 million, when accounting for services.