China Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Enterprise Service Network

Since the opening of Qiankai Port, more and more commodities have traveled between Asia and Latin America through this important hub, from high-quality agricultural products such as blueberries and avocados in Peru to household appliances and automobiles made in China; Brazil’s Mariti photovoltaic project invested and constructed by China enterprises has realized full-capacity grid-connected power generation, and Nicaragua’s El Hatto photovoltaic power station project undertaken by Chinese enterprises has held a commencement ceremony; China and El Salvador, Honduras and other countries accelerate negotiations on free trade agreements… China and Latin American countries are making new progress in economic and trade cooperation.
“Win-win cooperation” is the key word for China-Latin America relations. In recent years, China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation has continued to deepen and become more practical. Facing the future, China and Latin America will continue to work hand in hand, and the road to win-win cooperation and prosperity will become wider and wider.
From Qian Kai to Shanghai
Qiankai Port, located in Qiankai Bay north of Lima, Peru, opened in November 2024. It is an important project for China and Peru to jointly build “One Belt and One Road” and a vivid epitome of the deepening and implementation of China-Latin America cooperation in recent years.
China has been Peru’s largest trading partner and largest export market for many years. After the opening of Qiankai Port, the shipping time from Peru to China has been greatly shortened to about 23 days, and the logistics cost has been saved by more than 20%. On December 18,2024, the first ship of the route from Qiankai Port to Shanghai Port in Peru, the “New Shanghai” ship, entered Shanghai Port, marking the first two-way connection of the “Qiankai-Shanghai” sea voyage. It is worth mentioning that the goods carried on the “New Shanghai” ship include Peruvian blueberries, avocados and other characteristic fruits, which are stored in intelligent cold boxes that can be visually controlled throughout the whole process, ensuring the safety and freshness of goods transportation.
In addition, Qiankai Port has also boosted local economic and tourism growth, with the city’s beaches and restaurants flooded with tourists during this year’s New Year holiday.
Chankai Port is not only a natural deep-water port, but also the first intelligent and green port in South America. It is reported that during the project construction process, China enterprises have introduced the most advanced port management technology and green low-carbon concept to create an efficient and intelligent logistics ecosystem. The port is equipped with electric container trucks with autonomous driving technology to improve the efficiency of container operations. In addition, animal rescue stations have been built in the port to help improve the habitat environment around the project and contribute to local sustainable development.
Qiankai Port is located in the middle of Peru’s coastline and has significant geographical advantages. The completion of Qiankai Port will help Peru to build a three-dimensional, diversified and efficient interconnection pattern from coastal to inland and from Peru to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Green cooperation highlights frequently appear
In Brazil, the Mariti PV project achieved full capacity grid-connected power generation; in Nicaragua, the El Hatto PV power plant project held a commencement ceremony… Since the beginning of this year, China enterprises have actively participated in the construction of photovoltaic power plants in Latin American countries.
In recent years, the pace of energy transformation in Latin American countries has been accelerating, and large-scale projects such as Rome Blanca Wind Farm in Argentina and UHV DC Transmission of Meishan Hydropower Station in Brazil have become symbols of China-Latin America clean energy cooperation, providing strong support for the continuous output of green energy locally and the transformation of local energy structure to high quality, clean and diversified aspects. A research report by the Brazilian Institute of Applied Economics shows that from 2019 to 2022, the installed photovoltaic power generation capacity invested by China companies in Latin America quadrupled, from 363 MW to 1.4 GW; China The power generation capacity of wind farms invested by companies doubled, from 1.6 GW to 3.2 GW.
With the advantages of high-quality products, innovative design and competitive prices, China’s new energy vehicles are increasingly winning the love and recognition of Latin American market and selling more and more well. According to data released by the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association, more than 120,000 light electric vehicles were sold in Brazil from January to September 2024, an increase of 113% year-on-year. China brands account for eight of the top 10 models. As of August 2024, 2480 of the nearly 7000 buses in Santiago, Chile’s capital, were purely electric, all made in China, according to Chile’s Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications.
While expanding the Latin American market, many China automobile enterprises also invest and build factories in Latin American countries, and the industrial cooperation between the two sides continues to deepen. For example, BYD invested in building bus chassis factories, solar panel factories and new energy vehicle comprehensive factories in Brazil, and Chery established two automobile production bases in a joint venture with Caao, Brazil. Some analysts believe that the new weather and new trend of cooperation between China and Latin America in the automobile industry also reflect the broad prospects for strengthening green cooperation between the two sides in the future.
Free trade cooperation has been continuously strengthened
China-Latin America bilateral trade has maintained rapid growth for many years in a row. Last year, the trade volume between China and Latin America exceeded 500 billion US dollars. According to data from China’s General Administration of Customs, bilateral trade between China and Latin America reached US $518.467 billion in 2024, up 6 percent year-on-year.
Agricultural products have become the highlight of bilateral economic and trade cooperation. In recent years, more and more high-quality products from Latin America have entered the China market, from Chilean cherries to Peruvian blueberries, from Argentine beef to Ecuadorian white shrimp, from Brazilian coffee to Nicaragua honey… gradually known and loved by China consumers. Chilean cherries have become star fruits in the minds of China consumers. Data show that thanks to strong demand in the China market, Chile’s exports set a new record for the 2024-2025 season, generating US $2.925 billion for Chilean exports from November 2024 to the third week of January 2025.
China’s free trade “circle of friends” in Latin America has also been expanding. At present, China has signed free trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Last year, China’s free trade agreements with Nicaragua and Ecuador came into force, and negotiations on upgrading the free trade agreement with Peru were completed. Since the beginning of this year, China, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries are accelerating negotiations on free trade agreements and actively studying and promoting the signing of free trade agreements with more Latin American countries.
The FTA has played a positive role in promoting the development of trade and investment between the two sides. Chile, for example, was the first Latin American country to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with China and a protocol to upgrade the FTA with China. Since the China-Chile Free Trade Agreement came into effect in 2006, the trade volume between the two countries has grown rapidly. According to China customs statistics, the trade volume between China and Chile reached US $61.66 billion in 2024, 8.6 times that before the agreement came into force. The China Nicaragua Free Trade Agreement came into effect in January 2024. Last year, the trade volume between the two countries increased by 46.8% year-on-year. Nigerian sugar, frozen lobster, white shrimp, cotton yarn and other products have achieved rapid growth in exports to China from zero. Passenger vehicles, motorcycles, telephones, knitwear and rubber products produced by China have entered the Nigerian market at more favorable prices.
Upgrading economic and trade cooperation
In recent years, China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation has continued to deepen. In terms of trade, China is firmly ranked as Latin America’s second largest trading partner and Brazil, Chile, Peru and other countries ‘largest trading partners. In terms of investment, Latin America has become China’s second largest overseas investment destination after Asia, and China is also Latin America’s main source of foreign investment. China’s investment in Latin America is increasingly diversified, from energy, minerals and infrastructure to clean energy, green industries, high-end manufacturing, digital economy and sustainable agriculture.
In order to further promote the upgrading of China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation, a thorough researcher from the Institute of Americas and Oceania of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute said that, first of all, there should be institutional mechanism guarantee. For example, under the long-term and stable institutional guarantee of the free trade agreement and the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” framework, cooperation between enterprises of both sides will gradually deepen and form a more effective development model that meets the needs of all parties. Secondly, it is necessary to enhance the willingness and ability of enterprises to take advantage of the advantages of all parties according to local conditions. Many Latin American countries have some industrial characteristics, such as lithium resources, agricultural products, etc., which should make logistics and supply chain smoother through effective market docking, including the development of cross-border e-commerce, so as to meet the long-term development needs of the market. In addition, innovative cooperation should be encouraged. Cooperation models should focus on the entire regional market, rather than simple point-to-point cooperation. At the same time, efforts should be made to support the application of new technologies in the Latin American market and create new growth points for China-Latin America cooperation.
It is carefully emphasized that high-quality development cooperation should respect multilateralism and oppose trade and investment protectionism, so as to make the future of intra-regional development more certain and create a more effective large-scale development environment for investment and trade.