China’s Moves in Western Hemisphere Have U.S. Stepping Up its Game
China’s Moves in Western Hemisphere Have U.S. Stepping Up its Game
Washington recognizes it needs “to contend more actively for the Americas,” comments AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth as the U.S. and China reach out to Latin America’s markets.
WASHINGTON - China’s courting of Latin America and the Caribbean – signaled anew this week by a visit by its president – is prodding the United States to step up its outreach to the rapidly emerging economies, which are showing greater global clout.
President Xi Jinping’s weeklong trip to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico starting Friday comes in the wake of President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, and follows by just a day Vice President Joe Biden’s three-nation tour of the region. Xi will meet with Obama at the close of his trip, June 7-8 in California.
China has eclipsed the United States as Brazil and Chile’s largest trading partner, purchasing soybeans, iron ore and oil to fuel its rapidly expanding economy. Latin American exports to China accounted for just $5 billion in 2000; by 2012, they topped $104 billion.
The global giant’s rising influence in the hemisphere hasn’t gone unnoticed in Washington, in part prompting what Biden dubbed the “most active stretch of high-level engagement” in Latin America and the Caribbean in a “long, long time....”
“Nothing motivates Washington faster than competition,” said Eric Farnsworth, the vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, noting that trade deals with Colombia and Chile were accelerated when it became apparent that Canada and China were moving in.
“There is recognition in Washington that we need to begin to contend more actively for the Americas, that Latin America is not a region we can take for granted anymore – if we ever did – because the region does have options,” Farnsworth said. “We are still in many ways the preferred partner but we’re not the guaranteed partner, and we’ve got to fight for the region in a way that maybe we haven’t had to traditionally....”
