Latin America wary of US trade backlash as it builds relations with China

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Colombia is facing the potential American trade revenge after its left -wing president Gustavo Petro said he intends to register in the Beijing Initial in the belt and road infrastructure during a visit to China to attend a regional meeting next week.

The Bogota dilemma reflects a wider problem in the face of a 33-year-old community from Latin American countries and the Caribbean Sea region-how to diversify trade and investment without incurring US President Donald Trump’s anger. Beijing hosts a ministerial forum with Celac on May 13.

Petro holds a rotating CEAC this year, and Colombia has long been one of the most important South American allies in Washington. So the step by Bogotá to join BRI will be a big victory over Beijing, with Petro’s comments that already warn of Washington.

“Petro’s convergence with China is a great opportunity for Ecuadorian roses and Central America [in the US]”A special envoy to Latin America at the US State Department said.

The Colombian companies, which depend on the United States for export including coffee and cut flowers, have interpreted the words of the envoy as a veiled threat by the United States in favor of its closest competitors. The advisers to Petro fill in an attempt to persuade the president to delay the BRI announcement.

China and the region should use a meeting next week to “show their commitment” to move forward in cooperation despite Trump’s trade war.

“Latin America is a very important commercial partner as a continent,” he said. “Bilateral Trade [with China] This year may exceed $ 500 billion. ”

Events like China’s Celac meeting have become very important for Beijing to try to face the influence of Trump’s heavy tariffs between its trading partners. The biggest fear of Beijing is that Washington will persuade them to sign commercial deals that cut off vital export markets at a time when the weak local economy in China cannot absorb its massive production.

Meanwhile, Latin American countries weigh how to manage relations with Beijing at acute geopolitical tension. Panama was reeling our pressure about what Washington saw excessive Chinese control over its ports and Trump’s threats to restore the channel. Earlier this year, she had to withdraw from BRI.

Michael McCainley, a former US State Department official, said the American statement on Panama “sent a broader message to the region about Chinese investment and controlling sensitive infrastructure.”

“However, most of the Latin American countries have a view of great treatment of their relationship with China and do not look to its political compatibility with Beijing. The region wants to diversify its markets but also wants to maintain trade and investment relations with the United States.”

Brazil, the largest economy in the region, is already considered China as a better commercial partner. Left President Luiz Inosio Lula da Silva will attend the Celac meeting, and he will visit a government visit to China and hold what will be his third meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping within a little more than two years. Gabriel Borik, the last of the Chilean president, the world’s largest copper producer, will attend the Ceac meeting.

To take care of the diplomatic diplomatic context, the Brazilian diplomats described the event as a continuation of the long policy of Brazil for the involvement of the “global southern forces” in seeking to achieve pluralism, rather than a new exit or a response to Washington’s tariff.

The CEAC ministerial meeting, the first since 2021, will approve a road map to direct relations between Latin America and China at a time when Trump is trying to reaffirm what Washington used to photograph the “backyard”.

Mexico, which depends on the American market for more than 80 percent of its exports, is particularly sensitive. It faced increased pressure in the United States on Chinese imports and investment, especially in the car sector, which focuses on export. Since the Koronaf virus pandemic, Chinese companies have witnessed an attractive position to export to the United States because of its proximity and preferential treatment under the USMCA commercial deal.

After years without clearly defined policy, Mexican officials have now taken measures to try to curb Beijing. The government put a tariff on a wide range of Chinese goods from steel to textiles, promised to create a program for an investment examination of national security and tried to help manufacturers replace Chinese inputs with local sources.

Win T Song, a political scientist who focuses on China and Taiwan in the Atlantic Council and the Australian National University, said that strengthening close relations in Latin America will give China a stronger hand in negotiations with the United States.

China is keen to persuade Washington to retract Taiwan and the South China Sea, both of which consider it its field of influence.

“China loves to collect the influence of bargaining, and one of the best ways to do this is to create some signs of splitting, and some signs of the centrifugal forces in the immediate backyard in your opponents,” Song said, adding that “China has a lot of incentives” to exploit any efforts from countries in Latin America to the final touches of the United States.