Enrique Dussel Peters (ed), "Latin American Exports to China: Local experiences and Challenges" (Unión de Universidades de América Latina y el Caribe, 2025)

 

 

Happy to pass along the announcement by Enrique Dussel Peters (Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); Coordinator, Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies (Cechimex), School of Economics, UNAM; Coordinator, Academic Network for Latin America and the Caribbean on China (Red ALC-China) of the book: Enrique Dussel Peters (ed), Latin American Exports to China: Local experiences and Challenges (Unión de Universidades de América Latina y el Caribe, 2025).

The collection of essays edited by Prof.Dussel Peters include chapters on  

1. Chinese Value-Added in Latin American and Caribbean Exports. Conditions and Challenges (by Enrique Dussel Peters and Lesbis Pérez-Santillán), 

2. Local Impact of Venezuela´s Oil Exports to China. An Analysis Based on the New Oil-Based Global Value Chain (2000-2023) (by Carlos Eduardo Piña), 

3. Impacts of Chilean Exports to China of the Cherry Global Value Chain (by Dorotea López, Andrés Bórquez and Juan E. Serrano-Moreno), 

4. Brazil-China Oil Relationship. Impacts from a Local Perspective (by Pedro Henrique Batista Barbosa), 

5. Argentine Soybean Exports to China. Myths and Realities in the Pampas Region (by Eduardo Daniel Oviedo), 

6. Territorial Impacts of Exports Copper from Peru to China (by Kehan Wang and Marco Curi), and 

7. Territorial Impacts of Ecuadorian Shrimp Exports to China (by Carolina Viola-Reyes and Giuliana Vera-Díaz).

The "Presentation" authored by Enrique Dussel Peters follows. The work may be accessed HERE.

 

Presentation
Enrique Dussel Peters

 
The Academic Network for Latin America and the Caribbean on
China (Red al c-China) has been inviting its members, since
its beginning in 2012, to improve the quality of research and to
make efforts to engage in new analysis relevant for understand-
ing the socioeconomic relationship between Latin America and
the Caribbean (l ac) and China. As a result, Red al c-China has
been publishing contributions on Chinese outward foreign direct
investments in l ac since 2013, the impact of the l ac -China
foreign trade in l ac’s regional trade integration process, the rel-
evance of Chinese infrastructure projects in l ac, China’s impact
in l ac’s employment generation, and l ac’s outward foreign di-
rect investment in China, among others. After more than a decade
these contributions have become important pillars to under-
stand the complexity, depth, and extension of the socioeconomic
l ac -China relationship and have allowed for improving this
initial analysis for new countries, sectors, and territories within
countries in l ac.
Based on the already existing research on the trade relationship
between l ac and China, both at Red al c-China and in multiple
other institutions, the goal of this book is to examine the territorial
impact of l ac’s exports to China in specific global value chains
(g vc ), i.e. this book acknowledges the massive literature on

• 2 •LATIN AMERICAN EXPORTS TO CHINA. Local Experiences and Challenges

LAC-China trade and contributes in examining the local impacts
in l ac as a result of exports to China. While there are important
case studies on the topic, so far, and surprisingly, today a system-
atic approach and publication on this topic does not exist.
The seven chapters of the book are based on two foundations.
On the one hand, a common understanding of the methodological
approach of gvc. On the other, such a methodological under-
standing of gvc requires the authors to understand the details
–processes and products of the segments of specific gvc– in order
to empirically present the impact of exports to China in specific ter-
ritories. Beyond this common basis all authors were free to dis-
cuss on the territorial impacts in terms of employment, suppliers,
technologies used, potential territorial tensions, learning processes
within the region and by Chinese firms, as well as how these topics
have changed over time. In several of the cases the authors depend
on the publicly available information on the gvc and interviews,
considering that firm-level information is very difficult to obtain.
In several cases, firms were unwilling to grant interviews, even
after being assured of the confidentiality of the information pro-
vided. The confrontation between the United States and China
is deeply affecting l ac-countries, and l ac and Chinese firms
engaged on trade with China could easily be confronted in public
based on the provided information through interviews.
The results of the seven chapters could be systematized in at
least eight important topics.
First, in practically all cases the contemporary confrontation
between the United States and China plays an important territorial
role. The chapter of Dussel Peters and Pérez Santillán invites us to
consider the concepts of security-shoring since 2022, particularly
since the wave of executive orders issued during the second Trump
presidency beginning on January 20, 2025, as well the concept of
“new triangular relationships”, which is of particular relevance for
l ac as a region and its countries. Carlos Eduardo Piña elaborates
on how Venezuela has been entangled in this new triangular rela-
tionship at least since 1999 with the presidency of Hugo Chávez,
as well as in the cases of Argentina, and Ecuador. Brazil’s dialogue
 

• 3 •
and cooperation directly with China and through the G20 and
brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) since 2003
(chapter 4 by Pedro Henrique Batista Barbosa) presents another
form of profound integration with China. Free Trade Agreements
with China by Chile (2005), Peru (2009), and Ecuador (2023) re-
flect additional forms of engaging socioeconomically with China.
Second. The first chapter of the book offers an aggregated
perspective of l ac’s value-added in its exports, based on input-
output matrixes. Relevant for the aforementioned confrontation
between the us and China, the results are relevant for the rest
of the chapters: Chinese value-added in l ac’s exports to the us
have increased significantly during 1995-2020 –from 0.-8 % of
its foreign value-added to 20.4 % in 2020– with important differ-
ences between countries: Mexico with the highest value (21.2 %)
in 2020 and Costa Rica with the lowest (10 %); Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia and Peru with coefficients in between. The falling
value-added of the United States in l acexports to the us for the
period and the increasing presence of China is an important basis
for the rest of the chapters. In addition, the chapter explains the
recent extreme dynamics of l ac trade (exports and imports) to
China, which is discussed in all chapters in detail.
Third. The analysis on l ac exports to China reflect enormous-
ly different gvc which are critical for understanding the increas-
ingly complex and mature relationship between l ac and China
in the 21st century. Commodities such as oil (discussed in chapters
2 and 3 for Venezuela and Brazil) and copper (chapter 6 for Peru)
present substantially different characteristics in their production,
transportation and distribution in China when compared to soy-
beans in Argentina, shrimps in Ecuador and cherries in Chile.
The latter, as examined by Dorotea López, Andrés Bórquez, and
Juan E. Serrano-Moreno in Chapter 3, are characterized by their
delicacy and high perishability, which are crucial for ensuring
quality. Additionally, their seasonality and strict sanitary and phy-
tosanitary regulations are essential considerations for harvesting
and transportation. The analyses in chapters 2-7 are extremely rich
 

PRESENTATION
• 4 •LATIN AMERICAN EXPORTS TO CHINA. Local Experiences and Challenges

in capturing the specific conditions and implications of these GVC
and their territorial impacts.
Fourth. The relevance of the selected gvc is very different for
the respective countries in their exports to China, as well as for
Chinese imports. From a l ac perspective, oil from Brazil, as
well as Argentina’s soybeans, play a minor role in their exports to
China, while Peru’s copper, Chile’s cherry’s and Ecuardor’s shimps
are much more important in their contribution to their national
exports to China. In the case of Argentina’s soybean exports to
China (examined by Eduardo Daniel Oviedo in chapter 5), Ar-
gentina has implemented different policies to industrialize and
upgrade its production and exports (92.6 % of soybean complex
exports are in industrialized products such as meals and pellets,
oil (crude and refined) and biodiesel, among others. As a result,
Argentina’s soybean exports to China are highly concentrated in
raw materials (90.3 % in 2023), but account for only 9 % of its ex-
ports of the soybean g vc in 2023. The case of Peru’s copper
exports (examined by Kehan Wang and Marco Curi in chapter
6) is on the other extreme: copper concentrated 67 % of Peru’s
exports to China in 2023; Venezuela’s oil exports to China even
accounted for 68 % of its total exports to China. From a Chinese
perspective, Chile’s cherries and Peru’s copper are major players
in their respective gvc; oil imports from Brazil and Venezuela,
as well as shrimps from Ecuador and soybeans from Argentina
compete with other countries in China’s imports and play a sec-
ondary role considering other respective major imports. Clearly,
these initial results will require future detailed analysis in China’s
import demand and respective markets.
Fifth. l ac’s exports, based on the analysis of specific gvc ex-
ported to China in chapters 2-7, reflect that in several cases (such
as Ecuador’s shrimps and Chile’s cherries) exports are pursued by
national and local firms, without an explicit Chinese presence.
For the cases of Brazil and Venezuela, as well as copper in Peru
and soybeans in Argentina, there is an important presence of Chi-
nese firms at the national and local level. In the case of Brazil,
firms such as Sinopec, cnp c, cno o c, and Sinochem (which are
• 5 •
discussed in detail) have invested massively since the first decade
of the 21st century in exploration and production projects, espe-
cially those in the pre-salt area. Similarly, chapter 2 examines how
Chinese loans by China Development Bank (cdb ) and foreign
direct investments by cnp c directly affected crude oil production
in Venezuela to be exported to China. The topic is fundamental
for discussions on exports to China and their territorial impacts,
as well as policy proposals (see below).
Sixth. The territorial analysis of l ac exports to China within
specific GVC s also provides a valuable contribution to understand-
ing the upgrading processes within the respective territorial GVC s,
as well as those transferred by Chinese firms. Surprisingly the most
important upgrading processes have taken place in those terri-
tories in which Chinese firms were not present (i.e. in Chile and
Ecuador, see 5.). The case of Chile is particularly relevant in de-
veloping new technologies and processes locally and nationally
through private investments, including innovations in transport,
harvesting techniques, selection technologies, and packaging, all
aimed at exporting fresh cherries to China. Brazil is another ex-
treme, where firms such as cno o c, cno o c, and others ben-
efitted from already existing pre-salt (i.e. Petrobras´ expertise in
ultra-deepwater drilling). The other case studies do not reveal
significant technological upgrading processes or transfer of tech-
nologies by Chinese firms at the local or national level.
Seventh. Chapters 2-7 are substantial for understanding the
deep territorial impacts through their exports in specific gvc to
China, without exception. In all cases exports have generated im-
portant direct and indirect new employment. Considering that in
several cases territorial exports to China are minor (such as in the
Argentinian Pampas and Brazil’s oil), in other cases the new em-
ployment generation is substantial: 3,933 shrimp firms account for
195,000 jobs in Ecuador, particularly in the Guayas and Oro prov-
inces, and only the Las Bambas copper project in Peru operated
by China’s mmg generated over 8,000 direct and indirect jobs in
the Apurímac region. Other positive results of these exports to
China refer to technological upgrading processes discussed above.
 

PRESENTATION
• 6 •LATIN AMERICAN EXPORTS TO CHINA. Local Experiences and Challenges

These exports have also generated important local challenges, most
of them regarding the environment and social unrest. While Bra-
zil’s oil exports in the Río region have not generated any particular
new environmental and social confrontations, the territorial ex-
periences in Peru’s, Ecuador’s Guayas province and the Pampa’s
soybean complex in Argentina have all been significant from
this perspective. In the case of Perú, for example, copper mining
has resulted in lead contamination and waste accumulation, as well
as water grabbing and conflicts on land usage; 60 % of all social
unrests in Peru are related to mining. The criminalization of con-
flicts has also increased violence. In the case of Chinese firms in
Peru, Chinese firms have engaged in an important learning pro-
cess on environmental and social challenges in the last decades.
Nevertheless, even in the cases of cherries in Chile and shrimps
in Ecuador, with no presence of Chinese firms, generalized water
scarcity is a common challenge that has intensified rapidly due to
the growing demand from China. The case of shrimps in Ecua-
dor, analyzed by Carolina Viola-Reyes and Giuliana Vera-Díaz
(chapter 7), presents a particularly drastic case of environmental
devastation of its mangroves, added to high levels of poverty, lack
of basic services, and high levels of homicides associated with the
main regions exporting shrimps.
Eight. All chapters of this book present a variety of research
and policy proposals. It is clear that the book points into a topic
that has huge potential, considering massive territorial experiences
of l ac exports to China in specific gvc; seven case studies are
clearly not sufficient. Nevertheless, the book clarifies the complex-
ity and maturity of the socioeconomic relationship between l ac
and China at the territorial level. In most of the cases the national
governments in l ac are responsible for improving learning pro-
cesses and offering and implementing regulations, technological
upgrading options, and the transfer of technology; the effective im-
plementation of labor and environmental laws is also the respon-
sibility of federal, provincial, and local governments. In other spe-
cific cases, particularly regarding public Chinese firms, they should
 

• 7 •
and could also commit to improving efforts to overcome techno-
logical, labor, and environmental challenges. All these cases should
be significant for institutions such as the cel ac (Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States)-China Forum, which was
established in 2015 and explicitly integrates these themes in the
working programs since 2015.
PRESENTATION