The Changing Dynamics of China-Latin America Agriculture Relations

Abstract

With only 9 percent of the world’s arable land and a diminishing base of agricultural labor, China is exploring new strategies for producing and importing high-protein urban staples. Acquisition of foreign agriculture products is therefore important to the viability of the Chinese government’s vision of national economic development. The chapter examines questions and concerns that have become pertinent to China’s agriculture relations with Latin America: What domestic pressures are driving the Chinese government to deepen trade and investment with the region? How can China formulate reliable South-South relationships that offer partner countries more equitable outcomes than previous colonial and postcolonial experiences? How do Latin American suspicions of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reinforce perceptions of imperiled national sovereignty? We find that the Chinese government has become acutely aware of the need to address Latin American concerns about its impact in the agriculture sector. To do so, it is taking measures ranging from approvals for a wider range of Latin American food imports to commitments to invest in value-adding sectors of the region’s agriculture production chains.