Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu News reporter Song Qingying
The opening ceremony of the 9th Americas Summit was held in Los Angeles, USA on the 8th. Due to dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy, many leaders of American countries were absent from this meeting, which put the United States in a really embarrassing situation.
An exclusive analysis by Reuters on the 8th pointed out that since US President Joe Biden took office, China’s trade volume in most Latin American countries has surpassed that of the United States, and the gap has gradually widened. Latin American countries have complained that the United States only exaggerates. Jimu News reporters found that as early as 2020, Lianhe Zaobao published an article stating that China’s influence in many Latin American countries has surpassed that of the United States.
China’s influence in Latin America
In recent years, it has surpassed the United States
China has surpassed the United States in total trade in Latin America, excluding Mexico, according to Reuters, an exclusive analysis of U.N. trade data from 2015 to 2021. Last year in particular, total trade between Latin America and China reached nearly $247 billion, well above the $174 billion with the United States.
The trend, driven by resource-rich South American countries, shows that the United States is losing ground in Latin America in its “backyard”. The trade gap between the U.S. and Latin America gradually widened during Trump’s presidency in 2018, a trend that became more pronounced after Biden took office in January last year.
In December 2020, Lianhe Zaobao published an article stating that China is already the largest trading partner of Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, and its influence in most Latin American countries has surpassed that of the United States. The U.S. has been slow to take concrete action, while China, a major buyer of grains and metals in Latin America, has a clear advantage in trade and investment, several former and current U.S. officials said.
Capnay, the former Peruvian ambassador to China, said that although Latin America is still the most politically connected with the United States, it maintains the most important commercial, economic and technological ties with China, which is the region’s largest trading partner except Mexico.
It is understood that since the 1990s, Mexico has reached a free trade agreement with the United States, and the trade volume between the two countries exceeds the trade volume between the United States and the rest of Latin America. In 2015, trade between the two countries was $496 billion, rising to $607 billion last year. But in the past six years, the trade volume between Mexico and China has also expanded, rising from $75 billion in 2015 to $110 billion.
Latin American heads of state absent from summit
Complaining about America is just rhetoric
The three-day summit in the Americas will mainly focus on issues such as controlling illegal immigration, promoting economic growth, addressing climate change and preventing and controlling the new crown epidemic. This is the first time since the first Summit of the Americas was held in the United States in 1994 that the United States has hosted the conference, which aims to bring together leaders from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean to discuss important regional and global issues.
Earlier, the US State Department refused to invite the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to attend the summit of the Americas, citing so-called “democracy issues”. Many countries in Latin America were strongly dissatisfied with this. Mexican President Lopez announced a boycott, and countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador only sent low-level delegations to participate in the meeting.
According to reports, Biden aides have traveled to Latin America to lobby, saying the United States is a more reliable and transparent business partner. China’s investment in transport and infrastructure has helped trade deals in grains and metals, said Barral, a Brazil-based partner at consultancy BMJ. At the same time, many Latin American governments believe that the United States will only rhetoric, “the United States talks a lot, but where is the money?”
A U.S. official said that the United States is currently facing serious challenges. With commodity prices soaring and further boosted by trade data between Latin America and China, Chinese-made products are on the rise in Latin America, and their influence is still expanding.
Biden announces economic partnership program
Experts say it can’t solve the real problem
At the opening ceremony, U.S. President Biden announced an economic partnership plan between the United States and Latin American countries, saying that supply chains will be made “resilient, safer and more sustainable.” The plan is designed to provide an alternative to the Americas, where China’s influence is growing, and it is unclear how many Latin American countries struggling economically would embrace the arrangement.
However, according to AFP’s interpretation, this plan has more concepts than specific commitments, and it does not promise to open more market channels or inject more funds. A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters the plan was not fully formed, offered no tariff concessions and was initially open only to “like-minded partners” with the United States.
Farnsworth, a former White House official now at the Council of the Americas think tank, said that U.S. domestic policy and the Russia-Ukraine issue distracted Biden. “The Americas summit is part of solving the problem, not the real problem.”