U.S. Reluctance on Trade Deals Sends Latin America towards China
U.S. Reluctance on Trade Deals Sends Latin America towards China
"You have to compete economically in the western hemisphere or you’ll lose it," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to the Financial Times.
Ecuador’s president Guillermo Lasso is a US-educated, pro-business conservative. But his government has just signed a trade deal with China, and when he secured $1.4bn of debt relief last year, it was from Xi Jinping.
“Xi was very understanding,” said Lasso of the Chinese president.
Experts say Ecuador’s experience with China shows how the US and other western countries risk losing further ground in Latin America to Beijing unless they can offer better trade and investment opportunities. […]
Eric Farnsworth, who heads the Washington office of the Council of the Americas, a regional business group, said there was growing bipartisan concern about the lack of an active US trade agenda for Latin America.
“You have to compete economically in the western hemisphere or you’ll lose it,” he said. “And we’re not competing effectively.”…
“We are giving lots of directions, mandates and conditionality,” Farnsworth at the Council of the Americas concluded of the US strategy in the region. “What’s missing is market access and investment. The Chinese say: ‘We don’t care how you run your country. Just let us take your lithium.’”…
