he Great rate The United States government began to turn against him. On April 28 a Influencer China released a video showing Brazilian ships unloading their cargo of soybeans at the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, near Hangzhou and Shanghai. “After China reduced its purchases from the United States, ships loaded with Brazilian soybeans are appearing one after another,” he said on the Weibo platform. After the uproar, Zhao Qinxin, deputy director of the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission, was forced to hold a press conference to confirm that Brazilian soybeans were replacing American soybeans, as reported in an article published by the Brazil-China International Chamber of Commerce. “Even without purchasing grains and oilseeds from the United States, domestic supply will remain stable,” Zhao Chenxin said.
Last April, 700,000 tons of Brazilian soybeans arrived at the port of Ningbo Zhoushan, 32% more than in the same month of 2024. At the same time, US exports to China declined. In the second week of April, China bought 72,800 tons of soybeans from the United States, while in the third week it bought only 1,800 tons, according to US Department of Agriculture data. China’s grain import forecast for the period from April to the end of June represents a historic record, according to the Xinhua News Agency. BloombergThirty million tons, most of which come from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Alarms went off in the interior of the United States. American farmers have begun raising their voices against President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. “Products purchased by China from our competitors in Brazil or Argentina are not subject to the additional tariffs imposed by the Americans,” said Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association and a producer in Kentucky. “China will go first to South America and will not buy soybeans from the United States unless absolutely necessary.” CNN.
The Mexico-Brazil axis is strengthened
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, He took advantage of his visit to attend the inauguration of Claudia Schiebaum as President of Mexico last year to strengthen economic relations with Mexico. Lula launched the proposal to create a permanent bilateral economic forum and held two major trade events, one in each country. Since then, the Mexican-Brazilian axis has become stronger. Sheinbaum traveled to attend the G20 Presidents’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Fernando Haddad, Brazil’s Minister of Economy, has just met in Mexico with the president and business leaders from both countries to work together on the energy transition and integration in the region. “Until now, Mexico has been considered a country with an economy oriented toward exports to North America, but little integration with its southern neighbors. This will change with Trump’s isolationist policy,” political analyst Alexander Busch says in an article.
Leonardo Paz, a researcher at the International Center for Prospecting and Intelligence of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), confirms to elDiario.es that Latin America’s reaction to the Trump government has been more economic than political. “I don’t see an integration movement in the region,” Paz says. “For that to happen, there has to be a country leading that. Brazil occupied that role in the 2000s. Brazil and Argentina, at this moment, are rival countries in an ideological sense.”
The researcher realizes that although… Great rate Although Trump has the side effect of increasing internal trade in Latin America, most countries are “looking for a solution outside the region.” Change, according to the researcher, is already happening. “Latin American countries are moving their production chains elsewhere,” says Paz. “Basically, you are shifting the path of trade flows to other markets, so that the chain has more economic efficiency. Brazil, for example, stops buying a series of products from the United States.”
Asian way
Last May, Colombia joined the Belt and Road Initiative, popularly known as the New Silk Road, China’s ambitious global integration project in which 140 countries are already participating. In return, China offered Colombia a financing line worth 8.25 billion euros and promised to increase its imports from the country.
The entry of Colombia, a historic ally of the United States, into the New Silk Road increases the imbalance in the trade war between Beijing and Washington in Latin America. Brazil, which despite having a privileged trade relationship with Beijing is not part of the New Silk Road, has just concluded multi-billion-dollar agreements with the Asian giant in the digital economy and artificial intelligence.
For its part, Chile, which has already become part of the New Silk Road, is witnessing an accelerating process of economic rapprochement with the Asian giant. Chinese investments in Chile grew by 1,370% between 2016 and 2023, according to InvestChile, especially in infrastructure.
Although Panama did not renew the memorandum with China, after direct pressure from the United States, the New Silk Road has solid foundations in Latin America: twenty-one countries in the region are participating in the project.
On the other hand, the White House’s new trade policy is creating another side effect in Latin America with an Asian flavor: strengthening trade relations with India. Last April, New Delhi hosted a business meeting between India and Latin America with the aim of ensuring that the country obtains the strategic minerals necessary for its production chain. During Gabriel Buric’s visit to India, Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper company, signed an agreement with India’s state-owned Hindustan Copper. Last year, India signed an agreement with Argentina for the joint exploitation of lithium between the two public companies, Khanig Bedesh India and Catamarca Minera y Energetica Sociedad del Estado.
India’s recent multiple deals in the region, detailed in an article by fulha de sao paulo, It comes along with the opening of new embassies. And the last, in Bolivia, a country rich in lithium. The Asian path to Latin America is completed by the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the United Arab Emirates, which is approved imminently.
As if that were not enough, those imposed by the Trump administration are also working to bring the Latin American economy closer to Europe. Not only facilitating the potential final approval of a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, but also promoting historic rapprochement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a trade bloc formed by Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. In July, negotiations on a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association concluded. The agreement was officially signed in Rio de Janeiro on September 16 and seeks to create a free trade zone covering about 300 million people. The treaty will enter into force once it is ratified by the parliaments of each member state.
While the North American president spreads his trade war, migrant hunt and propaganda, Brazil’s silent diplomacy keeps Latin America away from the West’s clutches. Uncle Sam. The US-backed candidate for the presidency of the Organization of American States, established in 1948 and headquartered in Washington (United States), withdrew his candidacy due to lack of support. Lula’s nominee – Albert Ramdin, the former Foreign Minister of Suriname – is scheduled to take over the presidency of the organization until 2030. Once again, the OAS is looking south.
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