Negotiating profits and fakeness: the China-Nigeria trade in pharmaceuticals

TY - JOUR

T1 - Negotiating profits and fakeness

T2 - the China-Nigeria trade in pharmaceuticals

AU - Klantschnig, Gernot

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - This article examines the China-Nigeria trade in pharmaceutical drugs. It assesses the work of traders along the supply chains originating in Chinese production sites and ending in Nigeria’s drug markets. It explores the great variety of actors and their different relations to producers, intermediaries and the state. While ethnicity and nationality play an important role in these supply chains, it is argued that the trade cannot be fully understood through an ethnic lens. Moreover, the article highlights the physical points of interaction between traders and the state and how they are negotiable, as well as attempts of traders to define the legality of their work and the ‘fakeness’ of Chinese drugs. Thus, traders do not only negotiate the profits they make but also the quality and legality of their products.

AB - This article examines the China-Nigeria trade in pharmaceutical drugs. It assesses the work of traders along the supply chains originating in Chinese production sites and ending in Nigeria’s drug markets. It explores the great variety of actors and their different relations to producers, intermediaries and the state. While ethnicity and nationality play an important role in these supply chains, it is argued that the trade cannot be fully understood through an ethnic lens. Moreover, the article highlights the physical points of interaction between traders and the state and how they are negotiable, as well as attempts of traders to define the legality of their work and the ‘fakeness’ of Chinese drugs. Thus, traders do not only negotiate the profits they make but also the quality and legality of their products.

KW - CHINA

KW - NIGERIA

KW - TRADE

KW - PHARMACEUTICALS

U2 - 10.3917/polaf.134.0089

DO - 10.3917/polaf.134.0089

M3 - Article

SN - 0244-7827

VL - 2014/2

SP - 89

EP - 110

JO - Politique africaine

JF - Politique africaine

IS - 134

ER -