Ethiopia

Political relations

The visit of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister to France in October 2018 and the French President to Ethiopia on 12 and 13 March 2019 considerably strengthened the bilateral relationship. These visits also highlighted three key fields of cooperation for the coming years: economic, military and cultural cooperation.

Economic relations

Relations between France and Ethiopia have grown closer over the past five years. In 2018, bilateral trade between the two countries was €655 million, down 33% on 2017, due to the combined drop in French exports (down 26% to €615 million) and imports (down 5% to €38 million). The trade balance produces a structural surplus for France (€580 million in 2018). Ethiopia is now France’s fifth-largest export market and its second-largest trade surplus in sub-Saharan African. Ethiopian Airlines is a customer of Airbus, from which it purchases A350 aircraft, and in July 2019, a new Marseille-Addis Ababa route was opened.

In 2018, French exports were concentrated in two main sectors: transport equipment and pharmaceuticals. French imports from Ethiopia have been falling steadily since 2015, made up 81% of agricultural products, mainly raw coffee.

France is among the main European investors, after the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. At the beginning of 2019, 57 French companies were present in Ethiopia, employing almost 4,900 people.