In the midst of commercial and geopolitical tensions derived by the tariff war, after the announcements of the US president, Donald Trump, his counterpart Gustavo Petro announced that he will visit China to sign the letter of intent and adhesion to the initiative of the Strip and the Route, ifr. President Petro will be next week in Beijing, China, at the fourth ministerial meeting of the Chinese Forum-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, where the tenth anniversary of that International cooperation will be held.
Although the announcement of the president did not fell well between different sectors and guilds, then They ensure that this puts the commercial relationship with the United States at risk, the meeting will be a decision -making time in the diplomatic and commercial policies of Colombia, and that it can mark a guideline on the export and import dynamics.
With cut at 2024, 22 of the 26 countries that have diplomatic relations with China in Latin America have signed memoranda of understanding with the Asian nation.
Of that group, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Guayana, Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago subscribed to a specific cooperation plan.
While Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Panama are the countries of the region that maintain relations with China and still “resist” to adhere to the initiative. It should be clarified that this last nation made the decision to withdraw from the project proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping a month ago, despite having been the first Latin American state to accept the initiative in 2017.
What is the strip and the route?
In the words of Penildon Silva Filbo, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Bahia, It is a network of logistics corridors and commercial agreements that operates under the “mutual benefit” rhetoric.
This is a proposal by President Xi Jinping presented in 2013 and which began to be executed since 2017. The initiative is based on five aspects: communication in policies, interconnection of facilities, commercial fluidity, funds and linking of the will.
Zhang Jieyu, assistant researcher of the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies of the China Institute of International Studies, explained that China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents of the Strip and the Route with 152 countries and 32 international organizations, forming more than 3,000 cooperation projects and attracting almost US $ 1 billion in investments.
There are two forms of participation; the first, through agreements at the bilateral level; and the second, with projects at the multilateral level. This includes the official participation in the Strip forum and the Route for International Cooperation, adhesion to the Asian Basic Bank, adherence to cooperation mechanisms related to the initiative, or the clarification of the intention of cooperation in official documents.
They are not necessarily free trade agreements, but agreements according to the interests of each State.
It should be noted that China has signed a FTA with Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, in addition to having an early harvest agreement with Honduras.
There are several projects that arose as part of adhesion To the initiative of the Strip and the Route, one of the most prominent is the port of Chancay, which opened a land – maritime corridor between Asia and Latin America.
Other important infrastructure initiatives promoted by the IFR is the rehabilitation of the Belgrano Cargas Railroad in Argentina, the modernization of Puerto Saint John’s in Antigua and Barbuda, among other works.
It is important to highlight that since February 5 of this year new direct maritime links began operatingamong which is the Shanghai with that of the port of Buenaventura.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce of China, the trade of goods with all the partner countries of the Strip initiative and the route totaled US $ 3.07 billion last year. Of that, US $ 500,000 million went with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the data of the Chinese magazine today, 54% of the imports that the Asian nation made in 2024 had as its origin to the IFR partners.
-The partners in LATAM from China
Brazil is China’s main partner in Latin America, with 35.5% of bilateral trade. Mexico is still on the list, with 19.7%; after Chile, with 13.9%; Peru, with 7.8%; and Colombia, with 4.7%.
Argentina also appears, with 4.4%; Panama, with 2.9%; Ecuador, with 2.7%; Uruguay, with 1.5%; Guatemala, with 1%; Dominican Republic, with 1%; and other countries in the region, with 4.9%.
This shows the relevance of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, Well, these nations are in the top five of the countries with the greatest bilateral trade, but that do not yet adhere to the IFR.
“Latin American countries are accelerating their economic and social development, their urbanization continues to increase and its infrastructure demand is increasing at the same time. They have a growing demand for digital infrastructure, and China has enough technical reserves and construction experience in clean energy fields, internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, etc..”, explicitó Jieyu.
Xu Shicheng, member of the Professors Committee of the Postgraduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and who was in the diplomatic mission that China sent in 1979 and That President Julio César Turbay received in Colombia, a few months before establishing relations in 1980, he explained that the IFR is different with each state and that it will depend on the interests that each nation has.
“China does not follow the old route of modernization of some countries that resort to forms of war, colonization, looting and other self -efficient paths at the expense of the other.Chinese modernization provides developing countries with a totally new option. It is necessary to adopt a strategy, and a development model appropriate to the conditions of your country”, dijo Shicheng.
The problem with the US
In the Colombian case, it cannot be set aside that the main commercial partner has been the United States, and Although currently “puts conditions” to negotiate tariffs, for experts the approach between Colombia and China may not be so positive.
Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, founding director of Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom of Fiu, Ph.D. and former public policy director of the White House, He said that the approaches with China could be contrary to the intentions of negotiating with the United States, both in commercial issues and in diplomatic matters.
“The worst that can do not only the Colombian government, but the government of any part of the world in its negotiation with the United States is to approach China. Right now the Chinese are aggressively sending a message to everyone, something like, what the United States does not buy you we buy it. They are aggressively trying to capture the possible loss of an American market and the worst thing a government can do is that of Colombia or anywhere in the world is to get carried away by Chinese stories, ”said Díaz-Rosillo.
Different guilds agree that these approaches would be negative, and that in the short or medium term they would have adverse consequences.
“We believe we have many risks. Entering this initiative can cost us that we have to accept China as a market economy, with its consequences, when it really is not,” said Javier Díaz, president of Analdex.
For now, the details of Petro’s agenda in Beijing are unknown, and what other issues will deal with the Chinese government.
China has “won land” to the US as our business partner
According to the latest DANE reports, At the start of 2025 the country with which Colombia has the largest commercial deficit is China, with a balance of US $ 1,242 million FOB, followed by Mexico with US $ 155 million and Germany with US $ 108 million.
Punctually with China increased the deficit 27.3%, in the first bimester. In fact, the balance closed at US $ 12,391 million in 2024, being the most significant, even surpassing the US according to the DANE, China is already Colombia’s main commercial partner for these results.
*Invited by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China
