In 2025, China-Latin America economic and trade cooperation will reach a new level
Latin America in 2025 is intertwined with two distinctly different visions of the times: one is the resurgence of protectionism and the headwinds brought by "bloc-based" narratives, where tariffs and rules become tools for external pressure, and "Monroe Doctrine"-style exclusionary thinking appears openly in some policy documents; the other is a more autonomous and confident cooperation among the "global South" - from the busy automated quay cranes at Chiang Kai-shek Port to the increasingly common Chinese new energy vehicles on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil, from the institutional dividends of free trade agreements to the financial exploration of local currency settlement, a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation bond spanning the Pacific Ocean is accelerating into shape.
The year 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-CELAC Forum (a cooperation forum between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States announced on July 17, 2014). After a decade of deepening cooperation, China-Latin America cooperation has evolved from "vision and consensus" to "mechanisms and rules", and from "trade complementarity" to "industrial symbiosis". Amidst an international environment full of uncertainties, it has provided practical support for Latin American countries in stabilizing expectations and resisting risks.
From policy documents to customs clearance facilitation: "Five Major Projects" lead the continuous release of regulatory dividends
In 2015, the first ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum was held in Beijing, where the Beijing Declaration, the China-Latin America and Caribbean Countries Cooperation Plan (2015-2019), and the Forum's operating rules were adopted simultaneously, thereby establishing an overall cooperation platform between China and Latin America. Over the past ten years, relying on this platform, policy communication, economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and multilateral collaboration have progressed in parallel, making China-Latin America cooperation more stable and predictable.
In December 2025, China released its third Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, which systematically elaborated on the "Five Major Projects" for China-Latin America cooperation, clarified key areas and cooperation paths, and refined the "direction of action" into a list of actionable and promotable initiatives. Among them, one of the most operational levers is the free trade agreement. Up to now, China has signed and implemented free trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and other countries, and the China-Latin America free trade agreement network has begun to take shape. The benefits of tariff concessions, customs clearance, and facilitation of inspection and quarantine have been continuously released, providing more stable support for relevant countries to hedge against protectionist headwinds, and also providing institutional guarantees for enterprises to stabilize expectations, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.
From "Qian Kai to Shanghai": Transoceanic logistics transformation accelerates trade
The dividends of rules and institutions can only be transformed into growth momentum with the "hardware" support of channels and nodes. As a key project of China-Peru high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, Qiankai Port was opened on November 14, 2024, and its commercial operation accelerated after obtaining the operating license in June 2025. The coordinated network of shipping routes and ports formed around Qiankai Port is reshaping the logistics landscape connecting the west coast of South America and East Asia.
The most intuitive changes can be observed in the dimensions of "time" and "cost". According to official Peruvian data, after the opening of the Chancay Port, the transportation time from Peru to Asia has been shortened from about 35 days to around 23 days, significantly reducing logistics costs. Meanwhile, according to Shanghai Customs statistics, since the opening of the first direct route from Chancay to Shanghai on December 18, 2024, as of December 18, 2025, the cumulative import and export value has reached 5.57 billion yuan, with 205,000 tons of import and export goods; the shipping cycle has been compressed from the original 35-40 days to around 23 days, helping enterprises save more than 20% of logistics costs. Fresh agricultural products have benefited particularly significantly: in the first 11 months of 2025, the value of Peruvian fruits imported through Shanghai Port was 2.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 117.4%.
The efficiency improvement also brings about a "chain reaction" of trade activity and industrial chain linkage. A more stable and controllable trans-Pacific channel allows Chilean cherries, Peruvian blueberries, avocados, and other products to better align with China's peak holiday consumption, and leverages large platforms such as the China International Import Expo to promote production-sales matching and order fulfillment, enabling more Latin American small and medium-sized enterprises and origin cooperatives to enter the Chinese market with lower losses. For Latin America, this is not only about "selling faster", but also an important breakthrough in enhancing diversified export capabilities and reducing single-directional dependence amid rising geopolitical risks and intensified fluctuations in external markets.
From "selling to Latin America" to "producing in Latin America": "deep symbiosis" between China and Latin America in industry
The acceleration of trade is not only reflected in the speeding up of bidirectional flow of goods, but also in the acceleration of industrial investment and localization layout. Another major change in China-Latin America cooperation in 2025 is that Chinese enterprises have paid more attention to the integrated layout of "localized production + local supply chain + local employment", shifting the focus of cooperation from the export of single products to the co-construction of industrial ecology.
In the automotive industry, a Chinese new energy vehicle enterprise's complete vehicle factory in Bahia, Brazil, rolled off its first vehicle in early July 2025. The total investment for the project is approximately 5.5 billion reais (approximately 7.01 billion yuan), with a planned annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. It is expected to create about 20,000 jobs and send a strong signal of localized production and supply chain synergy. Another Chinese automaker's complete vehicle factory project in Brazil also held a completion, commissioning, and first vehicle roll-off ceremony in August 2025. The annual production capacity will gradually increase to 50,000 vehicles, and it will directly create more than 1,000 jobs. For Brazil, such projects are not just about capacity transfer, but also about the simultaneous landing of technology, talent, and supporting industrial chains, which is an important driving force for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. For Chinese enterprises, localization has also become a key path to cope with trade barriers and enhance market resilience.
In the consumer electronics market, Chinese mobile phone brands have partnered with enterprises in the Manaus Industrial Zone in northern Brazil to introduce production lines, and mass production was achieved in early 2025. The two production lines have a peak monthly mobile phone production capacity of about 100,000 units, and an annual production capacity of up to 1.2 million units. For mobile phone brands, especially those new to the market, local manufacturing is not only about cost, but also about trust - it sends a signal of "long-term commitment" to channels and consumers, and provides a more sustainable approach for expanding employment and conducting industrial worker training.
In terms of energy and infrastructure cooperation, Chinese technology provides a "energy foundation" for the green upgrading of local industries in Latin America, ensuring that clean electricity becomes a long-term guarantee for the development of manufacturing in the region. Taking photovoltaics (PV) as an example, in the city of Mariti, Ceará state, Brazil, a PV project implemented by Chinese enterprises has a total installed capacity of 425 megawatts, covering an area of approximately 760 hectares, and generating an average annual electricity output of about 980 million kilowatt-hours. The project achieved full-capacity grid-connected power generation in February 2025, supporting the optimization of the local energy structure and the supply of clean electricity. The CEME1 PV project in the heart of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, with an installed capacity of 480 megawatts and approximately 882,000 PV panels, can provide clean electricity to about 500,000 households.
From economic and trade exchanges to diversified cooperation: China and Latin America are committed to safeguarding the right to common development
In 2025, China-Latin America cooperation will not be limited to economic and trade exchanges, but will further extend to issues such as rules, finance, and development rights. In May 2025, the Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum was held in Beijing. At the meeting, China proposed to provide a credit line of 66 billion yuan (in RMB) to Latin American and Caribbean countries, emphasizing its opposition to protectionism and support for deepening cooperation in fields such as technological innovation, clean energy, and the digital economy. For many Latin American countries, due to tightening external financing channels and rising international capital costs, exploring diversified financial instruments and cooperation in local currency will help enhance their resilience to external shocks.
The synergy of the "Global South" has also gained more visibility on the multilateral stage. On July 6-7, 2025, the 17th BRICS Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with topics covering multilateralism, economic and financial cooperation, artificial intelligence, environment and climate change, etc. As cooperation topics expand from trade and investment to finance, technology, and sustainable development, the collaboration space between China and Latin America under the multilateral framework has been further opened up.
Green transformation is a crucial aspect of China-Latin America cooperation. From November 10 to 21, 2025, the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) was held in Belem, Amazonas, Brazil. Latin America boasts abundant wind and solar resources as well as key minerals, while China possesses industrial and technological advantages in photovoltaic, energy storage, electric mobility, and other fields. The integration points between the two sides in terms of green technology application, industrial chain collaboration, and urban transportation transformation have become clearer and more definite. Taking the city of Copiapó, the capital of the Atacama Region in northern Chile, as an example, it introduced 121 electric buses in October 2025, becoming the first city in South America to achieve 100% electrification of its public transportation system. Facing COP30 and the longer-term low-carbon transformation, China and Latin America have implemented pragmatic cooperation to translate the "right to common development" into projects, technologies, and rules, providing a replicable cooperation model for countries in the "Global South".
From industrial integration to people-to-people connectivity: China and Latin America continue to write a golden chapter
In the view of many people engaged in China-Latin America cooperation projects, 2025 is not the end, but the starting point of the next "Golden Decade". The significance of China-Latin America cooperation lies not only in the bustling ports and factories, but also in the fact that when cooperation is institutionalized and industrial chains are deeply intertwined, external narratives of "backyard" and scripts of "decoupling and breaking the chain" will become increasingly ineffective. When Latin American agricultural products enter Chinese households and Chinese green technology integrates into Latin American society, markets, enterprises, and ordinary people are forming more authentic connections in their daily lives.
As the "hard connectivity" of economic and trade cooperation continues to deepen, the "soft connectivity" of people-to-people exchanges also naturally follows. Standing at the new starting point of the 10th anniversary, China and Latin America are jointly exploring a path of common prosperity that spans the Pacific Ocean and faces the future, confronting uncertainty with openness and win-win cooperation, and responding to protectionism with collaborative development.