A Chinese company is to build a cotton spinning mill in Mauritius, taking advantage of laws that allow duty-free access to the US, the world's biggest textiles market.

Textiles exported from Mauritius qualify for duty-free access to the US under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).

The act was signed into law by President Clinton to boost trade between Africa and the US, by offering African exporters trade advantages.

This investment however highlights fears that Asian countries are using Africa as a gateway to the US, raising questions about whether this investment will evaporate when trade rules are completely liberalised.

The cotton mill is expected to produce 18,000 tonnes of cotton a year.

Gateway to US

Very few African countries are developed enough to take advantage of these trade preferences, with South Africa and Mauritius being the notable exceptions, Razia Khan, an economist at Standard Chartered told the BBC's World Business Report.

The US introduced stringent requirements to ensure that companies didn't ship their goods through "these African markets under the guise that these are African exports to the US," Ms Khan said.

"However in a few years time, international trade in textiles will be liberalised completely. The fear in a lot of African countries is what happens then.

"The investment that they now seem to be benefiting from may only be short term," she said.