According to the statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China, the total trade volume between China and Latin America and the Caribbean (hereinafter referred to as "Latin America") in 2021 was a record high, breaking through 450 billion dollars under the background of COVID-19's continuous spread and the hard recovery of the world economy.

Experts believe that economic recovery is the main reason for promoting the growth of China Latin America trade. Under the epidemic, China Latin America trade exchanges continue to deepen, reflecting the strong complementarity between the two sides.

The total amount reached a new high

In 2021, China will continue to maintain its position as the second largest trading partner in Latin America. According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs of China, the total import and export volume of China and Latin America in 2021 was about US $451591 million, an increase of 41.1% over 2020.

Yue Yunxia, director of the Economic Research Office of the Latin American Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China Latin America trade will perform prominently in 2021. Among the regional sectors counted by the General Administration of customs, China's total import and export volume and export volume to Latin American countries increased the most.

Maya alvisa, Professor of the school of Oriental Studies at the University of El Salvador in Argentina, believes that the substantial growth of Latin America China trade in 2021 is due to China's effective control of the epidemic, and China is the "most active economic and trade partner".

Jos é Mauro deleira, a professor at the University of the Armando Alvarez pentyado foundation, pointed out that in the face of the epidemic, China took the lead in restoring the economy, was the "supporter and stabilizer" of the world economy, and was also an important trading partner of major Latin American economies such as Brazil.

Complementary and win-win

In recent years, Chile has become a major source of imported fruits in China. Cherry, prune and peach are favored by more and more Chinese consumers. On the other hand, in mid January this year, the first batch of kiwifruit from China arrived in Chile, filling the gap in Chile's summer fruit market.

The agricultural product market is only an epitome of the complementary and win-win economic and trade between China and Latin America. According to the data of the General Administration of Customs of China, Latin American exports to China in 2021 were about US $222.582 billion, an increase of 31.4% over 2020. Yue Yunxia said that on the one hand, the increase came from the increase in the number of agricultural and mineral products imported by China from Latin America, on the other hand, it was due to the rise in commodity prices.

The data also show that China's total exports to Latin America in 2021 were about US $229.009 billion, an increase of 52.0% over 2020. Yue Yunxia analyzed that, on the one hand, the medical and health sector and the leisure and entertainment sector spawned by the epidemic have promoted the growth of China's exports to Latin America; On the other hand, the epidemic in Latin America has slowed down, regional economic activities have increased, and people's consumption has picked up. On the basis of maintaining the stability of China's supply chain, China's exports of traditional manufactured products such as automobiles and electromechanical products to Latin America have also shown a growth momentum.

Zhou Mi, deputy director of the Institute of international trade and economic cooperation of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said: "as the most stable supplier in the world, China can meet the demand for industrial products, consumer goods, killing protection products and drugs under the economic recovery of Latin America." He believes that this reflects that China and Latin America can effectively use their respective advantages to carry out mutually beneficial and win-win trade cooperation.

The prospect is still in the future

At the end of 2021, the outbreak of the variant COVID-19 COVID-19 had become more acute, which brought more challenges to Latin America's economic development. The world bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean recently lowered their economic growth expectations for Latin America in 2022. Nevertheless, experts believe that the prospect of China Latin America economic and trade cooperation is still worth looking forward to.

Yue Yunxia believes that although the Latin American economy faces uncertainty, the Chinese market is huge and the basic demand for Latin America will continue.

"China Pakistan trade still has great potential to tap." Lijia Dutra, head of the International Relations Department of the Brazilian Federation of agriculture and animal husbandry, said that in order to expand exports to China, more and more Brazilian rural producers will join China Brazil trade. The Federation of agriculture and animal husbandry will also use social media to publicize Brazilian Agricultural and animal husbandry products and expand trade channels by creating an e-commerce platform.

In addition, the epidemic has increased the possibility of cooperation in service trade between China and the United States. Yue Yunxia said that China and Latin America have tried to develop new service trade such as telemedicine and distance education. In the future, as the epidemic situation is gradually controlled, traditional tourism and other service industries will gradually recover, which will further promote the development of China Latin America trade.