China’s explosive economic growth and increased integration with the global economy over the last three decades has been one of the most striking features of the latest phase of globalisation.  China’s output has increased 15-fold in real terms making it the third largest economy in the world.  At the same time, China changed from a largely closed economy to become the world’s third largest trading economy. On current trends, the OECD predicts that it could be the world’s largest exporter by the beginning of the next decade.

The implications of the emergence of China as a key driver of global growth have been widely discussed in relation to the OECD countries and more recently Africa.  Rather less attention has been given to its impact on Latin America.  In the United States some commentators have expressed concerns about the growing influence of China in the region seeing it as a threat to US hegemony.  However China’s interest in Latin America is primarily economic rather than political and it is the economic aspects that are the focus of this research.

The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s World Economy and Finance Research Programme (Grant No. RES-165-25-005).  It looks at the impacts of China on the trade and investment flows of 18 Latin American countries, analysing both the direct effects of bilateral trade and investment between China and the countries of the region and the major indirect trade effects through the “China effect” on global commodity prices and through Chinese competition in Latin America’s traditional export markets.   A Briefing Paper provides a summary of the main findings of the project. (Click here for the Spanish version)

More detailed research was carried out with local collaborators on the impacts of China on four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.  In each of these countries, value chain studies were carried out in two key sectors: soya and leather/footwear in Argentina; iron ore/steel and consumer electronics in Brazil; copper and textiles and clothing in Chile, and electronics and the motor industry in Mexico.

Research Team

Team Leader:
Rhys Jenkins, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Research Assistant:
Jean-Baptiste Chesneau

Collaborators in Latin America:

Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación (CENIT), Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Prospectiva, Consultoria Brasileira de Asuntos Internacionais, Sao Paulo., Brazil.

Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Regionales, Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.

Centro de Estudios China-Mexico (CECHIMEX), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.

Working Papers

No.1: Andrés López and Daniela Ramos, A Study of the Impact of China's Global Expansion on Argentina, 2008

No.2: Andrés López, Daniela Ramos and Cecilia Simkievich, A Study of the Impact of China’s Global Expansion on Argentina - Soybean Value Chain analysis, 2008

No.3: Andrés López, Daniela Ramos and Gabriela Starobinsky, A Study of the Impact of China’s Global Expansion on Argentina – Leather Value Chain analysis, 2008

No.4: Enrique Dussel, Mexico’s Economic Relationship with China: Heading for Conflict? The Impact of China’s Global Expansion on Mexico, 2008

No. 5: Enrique Dussel, The Mexico-China Economic Relationship in Electronics: A Case Study of the PC-Industry in Jalisco, 2008

No. 6: Jonathan Barton, The Impact of China´s Global Expansion on Chile, 2009.

No. 7: Jonathan Barton, The Impact of China’s Global Expansion on the Copper Export Value Chain and the Textiles Import Value Chain in Chile, 2009

No. 8: Daniel Saslavsky and Ricardo Rozemberg, The Impact of China’s Global Expansion on Brazil, 2009

No. 9: Alexandre Barbosa and Débora Miura Guimarães, Economic Relations between Briazil and China in the Consumer Electronic Sector, 2009

No. 10: Alexandre Barbosa and Débora Miura Guimarães, Economic Relations between Briazil and China in the Mining/Steel Sector, 2009

No. 11: Pablo Wong Gonzalez, The Impact of China’s Global Expansion on Mexico’s Auto Industry, 2009