Trump’s Africa Summit Heats Up Rivalry for Continent’s Resources

US President Donald Trump’s meeting with African leaders shows a sense of urgency in competing for scarce resources with China, which recently lifted tariffs on imports from the continent.

The president told his guests on Wednesday that the US was “shifting from aid to trade” to deepen economic ties, and suggested they buy US arms to reinforce that pivot to transactional diplomacy. The leaders, from Senegal, Gabon, Liberia, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau, are visiting Washington for a three-day summit that ends on Friday.

Trump’s invitation to the presidents from the West and Central African nations — which hold deposits of ...