By 2010, approximately 22 percent of the combined
industrial exports of the four selected countries to the
two major regional markets (U.S. and Latin America)
were threatened by competition from China. As for
competition in the domestic market, the three countries for which it was possible to calculate the coefficient showed a rise of imports in apparent consumption
from 6 percent to 11 percent in all the manufactures, with
the above-mentioned sectors (office machinery, metal
products, wood pulp, etc.) being the most affected ones
[See figure 5].
The story is far from over. Although our study shows
Chinese imports have made serious inroads in the market share of domestic industries in Latin America’s largest
economies, as well as in their share of industrial exports
to third markets, public policy can make a difference.
Competitiveness in industries that compete with
similar products of Chinese origin, especially in sectors
dominated by low-skilled labor, can be strengthened in
at least three ways.
• Reducing logistics costs to take advantage of
lower costs associated with distance, especially
in trade with the U.S., and in neighboring markets
for intraregional trade.
• Increasing spending on research, development,
design and marketing of products with a higher
probability of maintaining internal or external
market share, specializing in areas where
differentiation is higher.
• Improving quality and fostering innovation in
products at risk of being replaced by Chinese
competitors, through targeted incentives and
investments in areas such as quality control, ISO
certification norms and, ultimately, reducing the
carbon footprint in exports.
Efforts to articulate public policies are increasingly necessary to define national strategies, involving both private and public actors—like similar efforts developed
in East Asian countries—to create the conditions necessary to meet the challenge posed by China. If these
coordinated efforts are not deployed, the future of the
industries in question could be seriously compromised.
Osvaldo Rosales is director of the International
Trade and Integration Division at the UN Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
FOR SOURCE CI TATIONS W W W. AMERICASQUAR TERLY. ORG/ROSALES
AMERICASQUARTERLY.ORG
OSVALDO ROSALES Trade Competition from China LATIN AMERICA’S
SOURCE IN THE
MIDDLE KINGDOM
Lina Salazar
Colombian journalist Natalia Tobón, 29, now in China, says that just one
cultural encounter can
hook Chinese citizens on
Latin America. Maybe it
starts with Colombian
salsa or Argentine wine,
but soon it develops into
taking Spanish classes
and perhaps even
traveling to experience
Latin America in person.
Today, Tobón’s mission is to provide Latin
Americans with a personal understanding of
China. “Everyone loves
to demonize China because that’s what sells,”
she says. “But there are
many good things about
China that we don’t see.”
In 2008, Tobón and Italian journalist Simone
Pierani founded China
Files, a Beijing-based
press and communications agency.
Tobón first visited
China in 2005, when she
took a leave from
Universidad de los Andes in
Bogotá. She returned to
Beijing after graduating
to improve understanding between the two
regions. The distance between Latin America and
China is “also social, cultural and intellectual,”
she says.
Unable to find funders
for a Spanish-language
magazine for the His-
panic community in Bei-
jing, Tobón and Pierani
turned to providing me-
dia services to Latin
American embassies in
Beijing and to Chinese
companies, among oth-
ers. Today, major news-
papers such as Portafolio
in Colombia and La
Nación in Argentina con-
tract with China Files.
The service is one of
only four media orga-
nizations to offer Span-
ish-language reporting
from China—alongside
Peru’s El Comercio, Cu-
ba’s Agencia Prensa La-
tina and Mexico’s La
Reforma. The agency’s
website, operated by a
staff of 11, receives al-
most 20,000 visits a
month. As of Novem-
ber 2011 it was “liked” by
4,432 people on Face-
book and had 1,404 Twit-
ter followers.
Latin American media
trust China Files’ report-
ing, says Tobón, because
staff are insiders in a
hermetic society. “We
understand how network
dynamics work in China,
we know the guanxi (so-
cial relations).”
Tobón takes a mild
view of Chinese censor-
ship of domestic and
foreign publications.
Though she concedes
that “there are topics we
don’t touch,” she says
the goal is “to provide in-
formation and to pres-
ent a new perspective on
China—not to condemn.”
103 Americas Quarterly WINTER 2012
