China (& India) – Latin America News Attack

Over the past few days my news radar has exploded with China-LatAm related news. Here are a few excerpts from the English articles.

Chinese investors become responsible in Latin America – study

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Chinese investors in Latin America are showing greater awareness of the social and environmental impacts of their business activities, and have started applying standards to make trade more sustainable, a research report said on Thursday.

The study from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) looked at investment by Chinese state-owned enterprises in Peru, Brazil and Chile, in the mining, agriculture and forestry sectors. China is expected to overtake the European Union to become Latin America’s second-largest trade partner next year, after the United States, it noted.

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China to the rescue of Argentina with a 10 billion dollars equivalent swap

Argentina is negotiating with China a new 10 billon dollars equivalent swap of international reserves support based on the experience of 2009 when the global financial crisis. The new accord should theoretically help Argentina strengthen its international position vis-à-vis the run on the dollar (or the flight from the Peso) and which has cost the Central bank 4 billion dollars so far this year.

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Chinese Vice-president in Argentina to strengthen long-term strategic partnership

China is determined to advance in mutually beneficial cooperation with Argentina visiting Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao said on his arrival on Thursday to Buenos Aires. He underlined that the new Chinese leadership will continue to perceive and develop bilateral relations from a long-term strategic perspective.

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China In Latin America: Why Is Vice President Li Yuanchao Visiting Argentina And Venezuela This Week?

Chinese vice president Li Yuanchao arrives in Caracas this week to meet with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello after having spent the second part of last week in Buenos Aires. In recent years, China has expanded its economic links with Latin American countries, with Chinese manufacturers establishing their presence throughout the region, while China has become a main source of growth in exports of raw materials like petroleum, copper, iron and soybeans. But Argentina and Venezuela are the two countries with which China has had an uncertain relationship.

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Venezuela-China Trade Jumps

BY JOACHIM BAMRUD

Venezuela and Central America gain most in China trade.

Venezuela led the way in Latin American growth of exports to China and imports from the Asian country, according to a Latinvex analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In percentage terms, three of the top four trade growth winners are from Central America. And when it comes to Latin American exports to China, the top three countries in percentage increases are from Central America.

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Chinese Vice-president asks Venezuelan government for efficiency in joint-projects

“We have to take care that these projects are effective and efficient, in the sense that they can play a positive role in employment and economic and social effects,” Li told Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua while touring the site.

“I hope the efficiency factor will be taken into consideration.”

The plant is for pasteurizing milk and producing other dairy products and is being constructed in Valles del Tuy, near the capital.

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India’s Hero MotoCorp launches brand in Latin America

The country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp today said it has launched the ‘Hero brand’ and its range of two-wheelers in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras in Central America.

Hero MotoCorp also announced a partnership with the reputed Indy Motos Group of Guatemala to bring its two-wheelers to these markets. Under the alliance, Indy Motos has been appointed as the authorised distributor of Hero MotoCorp range of two-wheelers in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Pawan Munjal, managing director and chief executive officer, Hero MotoCorp, said: “This launch is a significant milestone for us considering this is the first of the new international markets, where we are starting our operations.”

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Peru’s non-traditional exports to China rise 92% in 2005-12

The Peruvian Exporters’ Association (Adex) has reported that China-bound exports of non-traditional products worth over US$ 1000 a year increased by 92 percent between 2005 and 2012.

According to official data, the number of these goods jumped from 108 to 207 in the period.

Adex said that exports of non-traditional products to China were valued at US$ 332.1 million in 2012, an increase of 29.3 percent compared to US$ 255.7 million in 2010.

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Peru’s non-traditional exports to India up 389.22% in 2010-12

Peruvian exports of non traditional products to India grew by 389.22 percent to US$ 83.6 million between 2010 and 2012, the Peruvian Exporters’ Association (Adex) said Tuesday.

This sum accounts for 21.64 percent of total exports to the Asian country in 2012, when they amounted to US$ 386.6 million.

According to Adex, the increase shows that Peruvian exports are entering markets with sustained economic growth like India and China in a context of global crisis.

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LSL – Survey of LatAm Consumer Trends

World Economic Forum on Latin America 2013

India’s RIL is jointly assessing investments in four oilfields in Venezuela

[Source] : Livemint

By Rakteem Katakey

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) plans to spend more than $2 billion (around Rs.10,800 crore) on Venezuelan oilfields, betting President Hugo Chavez’s failing health won’t lead to political upheaval, said a person with direct knowledge of the decision.

The operator of the world’s biggest refining complex is jointly assessing investments in four oilfields in the South American nation with state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), said the person, who asked not to be identified, citing confidentiality terms. RIL is waiting for data on the blocks from PDVSA to start the due diligence process, the person said.

Venezuela, which holds the world’s biggest proved oil reserves, produces cheaper, heavier grades of crude, ideal for processing at the two adjacent refineries run by RIL, which posted its first profit increase in a year last quarter. Chavez, who was re-elected in October to a third six-year term, is fighting cancer in a hospital in Cuba and hasn’t been seen or heard since 10 December when he reached Havana for a fourth surgery.

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US – Latin America Foreign Policy in Focus: What’s good for you, is good for me…?

As of recent, I have been keeping a close watch on newly published literature, news and essentially whatever catches my attention on how US Foreign Policy in Latin America might evolve over the course of the next decade.

This topic has recently garnered a fair share of attention for multiple reasons. For starters, the world today is a very different place when compared to the world of 1993 when the Western Hemisphere attempted to foster the foundations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).  This foray of attempting to implement a Hemisphere wide free trade zone failed miserably for various reasons.  However, as we kick off the new year, it is clear to many policy experts, it will be necessary for the US, and its counterparts throughout Latin America to adapt and redefine their foreign policy goals within the context of 21st century geopolitics and an ever more increasingly globalized world economy.

Christopher Sabatini, author of the article “In Latin America, Creative Focus Could Pay Off,” published by World Politics Review on January 8, 2012 offers great insight into how the US could make some changes in its Latin America Foreign Policy Agenda for the benefit of not only the US, but the region as a whole. Below are a few excerpts from his article which you can read the full version of by click the link above or at the end of this entry.

For decades, Latin America policy specialists have lamented how the Western Hemisphere is never a priority for U.S. presidents. For all the United States’ economic and cultural ties with the region, however, America’s neighbors to the south do not face the kinds of imminent threats that tend to get a president’s undivided attention — and fortunately so.

But while Latin America may never, and arguably should never, figure on the list of the U.S. executive’s top concerns, several innovative pushes across the U.S. foreign policy apparatus would not only dramatically help advance U.S. relations and leadership in the region, they would also set the tone for relations for decades to come, while making sure the region never gets what many have wrongly longed for: the president’s urgent attention.

…

In 2011, trade between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean totaled $800 billion, with the economies to the south of the Rio Grande consuming more than 20 percent of U.S. exports. The rise of Asian economies notwithstanding, the volume of U.S.-Latin American trade is still greater than that with China for either side. More important for U.S. workers, America’s southern trade partners are buying high-end manufactured American goods. Thirteen countries, including Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela and Mexico, import more from the U.S. than from any other country, much of it in the form of goods like computers, telecommunications equipment, cars and machinery.

…

Though little-known, the negotiations to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could be one of the most important institution-building initiatives since the Cold War.

…

To be sure, the next four years will see hemispheric crises that will land on the president’s desk. Among them will likely be some form of political transition in Venezuela and possibly Cuba, and ongoing security concerns in Mexico and Central America. For too long, however, crises and specific issues like security and narcotics have driven U.S. policy in the hemisphere.

In an era of selective cross-hemispheric convergence and greater competition among states in the region, the Obama administration now needs to look for ways to leverage its relations with economic and political allies in Latin America to expand the hemisphere’s global reach, seize the advantages of the region’s global ambitions and break free of the ideological baggage of the past. This requires only that the president send a signal of executive commitment and interest by setting in motion a limited series of initiatives. Doing so will update and remake our relations not only for the next four years, but for the next generation.

…

Christopher Sabatini is the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, published by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA). He would like to thank Andreina Seijas of the AS/COA for her research.

Click here to read the complete article

The Economist: The expanding middle in Latin America

[Source] : The Economist

The Expanding Middle

Nov 10th 2012

A decade of social progress has created a bigger middle class—but not yet middle-class societies

JAMMED onto a spit of land that juts into the azure Atlantic near the centre of Recife, in Brazil’s north-east, Brasília Teimosa was until a couple of decades ago a favela of wooden fishermen’s huts. Now its streets are lined with brick houses, some of three stories and clad in decorative tiles but others jerry-built. It has seafood restaurants, shops and a couple of bank branches, but also piles of uncollected rubbish. Many marketing types and economists would hail its residents as members of Brazil’s burgeoning “new middle class”, who have become avid consumers.

That is not how Francisco Pinheiro, a community leader who was born in Brasília Teimosa, sees it. “Economically, it’s much better off than it was,” he says. “But a middle-class person is someone who lives in Boa Viagem”—a smart beachfront residential suburb close by—“with a car, an apartment and an income of 3,000 reais ($1,500) a month.” In Brasília Teimosa, he adds, the majority earn less than two minimum wages ($613)—often shared among a family of four or more.

Click here to read the full article direct from The Economist

Latin America on Obama’s re-election – US views of the region – US Latin American Foreign Policy

Image courtesy of Nasa – Screenshot from NASA’s globe software World Wind using a public domain layer, such as Blue Marble, MODIS, Landsat, SRTM, USGS or GLOBE

As many news programs, news papers, bloggers, and commentators of all sorts have mentioned — Latin America (Immigration Reform and the War on Drugs to) where virtually ignored throughout the entire campaign and mentioned only one time during the Presidential Debates by Mitt Romney.

Yes there are a great many problems around the world.  Particularly in the Asia-Pacific, North Africa, and Middle East regions.  Not to mention the Eurozone economic crisis, or Hurricane Sandy, but to totally ignore 3/4 of the geographic space in the Western Hemisphere… As your author I say “Shame on you United States of America, and I implore your elected officials to begin paying more attention to your neighbors down South!”

Below CSA presents some articles from different perspectives and sources which are examining this question of why the US has so ignored the region of Latin America.

Reuters: Analysis: Obama faces Latin America revolt over drugs, trade

By Brian Winter
SAO PAULO | Fri Nov 9, 2012 9:55am EST
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama will face an unprecedented revolt by Latin American countries against the U.S.-led drug war during his second term and he also may struggle to pass new trade deals as the region once known as “America’s backyard” flexes its muscles like never before.

Washington’s ability to influence events in Latin America has arguably never been lower. The new reality is as much a product of the United States’ economic struggles as a wave of democracy and greater prosperity that has swept much of the region of 580 million people in the past decade or so.

It’s not that the United States is reviled now – far from it. Although a few vocally anti-U.S. leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez tend to grab the media spotlight, Obama has warm or cordial relations with Brazil, Mexico and other big countries in the region.

Most Latin American leaders were rooting, either privately or publicly, for his re-election on Tuesday.

Click here to read the complete article direct from Reuters

The Guatemala Times: The US elections: a view from Latin America

It has been this year’s most notable absentee: whatever happened to Latin America as a theme in the presidential campaign?

A great paradox in Tuesday’s United States elections is that of the growing significance of the Hispanic vote and the almost total absence of Latin America on the candidates’ agenda. The Hispanic vote is particularly important in swing states such as Florida and Nevada, although its presence is much wider—in California, Texas, Arizona, New York, New Mexico and Illinois, among other states.

Though the relationship between Hispanic voters and black candidates has been historically a complex one, Hispanics came through for Barack Obama in 2008, with 65% of their votes going to the candidate of “hope and change”. This time, polls indicate as much as 70% of them will vote for the incumbent president. This could make the difference between winning or losing in Nevada (where Obama is ahead, albeit by a small margin) and in Florida (which is essentially tied).

In years to come, the state to watch is Texas. According to many observers, the growing Mexican-American population there, whose most visible up-and-coming leader is Julian Castro, the charismatic mayor of San Antonio, who delivered a rousing keynote at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte last August, will mean that some point in the near future the Hispanic vote will have Texas switch from a Republican to a Democratic majority state. With California and New York already in that camp, flipping Texas may mean relegating the Republican party to a permanent minority condition in the Electoral College, confined to the Deep South and the Rocky Mountain states.

Click here to read the complete article direct from the Guatemala Times

World Policy Blog: The U.S. Should Stop Ignoring Latin America

By Robert Valencia

A great share of the world grew disappointed after seeing the last debate between President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, where foreign policy rhetoric geared heavily toward Middle East and Chinese affairs. Latin America only received one brief mention by Romney. Given the current domestic gridlock in Washington D.C. and the mounting turmoil in Syria and Afghanistan, Latin America is doomed to be on the back burner once again, but a new White House administration should change this by curbing the War on Drugs and strengthening its bonds with Brazil, the second largest economy in the Americas

Latin Americans should not expect a 180-degree change in U.S. policies after the election. During the first Republican debates this year, three presidential hopefuls—Romney included—talked about Cuba and Venezuela’s possible connections with Al-Qaeda, and expressed their wish to see Fidel Castro dead. Yet no Republican candidate offered concrete steps in fostering democracy, strengthening economic bonds or improving security.

Both Obama and Romney have vowed to continue the U.S. War on Drugs. At the Summit of the Americas in Colombia, President Obama emphasized that he would not change the draconian policy, despite its dire consequences for those both north and south of Rio Grande. Likewise, Romney made clear on U.S. Hispanic TV channel Univision that he would continue the same drug policies as the current administration. No, the White House will not change its position, despite the outrageous death toll in Mexico, the new routes for smuggling narcotics onto U.S. streets, the indiscriminate incarceration of U.S. citizens of color for possessing small amounts of drugs, and the disastrous effects on Central American villages of military raids against drug kingpins.

Click here to read the complete article direct from the World Policy Blog

NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America): Obama’s Election and the Caribbean: What Does it Mean?

Kevin Edmonds
The Other Side of Paradise
November 8, 2012

Early Wednesday morning the Caribbean breathed a sigh of relief with the re-election of Barack Obama. A Romney victory would have ushered in a period of uncertainty, as it was expected that he would pursue a more aggressive stance towards Cuba and other left leaning governments in the region. During the debates however, it became apparent that Latin America and the Caribbean was not an area of deep concern for either candidate as the foreign policy discussion was intensely focused on matters relating to the potential conflict with Iran, security in post-Gaddafi Libya, Israel/Palestine, Syria and the trade imbalance with China.

While Caribbean Prime Ministers immediately extended their congratulations to Obama, their expressions of cautious optimism also came with calls for more meaningful engagement with the region. For example, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit sent his congratulations to Obama, remarking that “The relationship between the United States and Dominica continues to be strong, based on mutual respect…we work very diligently on matters relating to regional security and we look forward to advancing those efforts. Clearly, the U.S. focus is on anti-terrorism matters and they moved away from issues relating to development in the region. But I am hoping that the new term of President Obama there would be some kind of re-direction towards developmental issues.”

Click here to read the complete article direct from NACLA

The Huffington Post: Latin America 2013: A Look Ahead

By Eric FarnsworthVice President, Council of the Americas

Assuming that the world does not end, according to the Mayan calendar in December, 2013 will be an important year south of the U.S. border. There are a number of issues to watch in determining the hemisphere’s direction, although most depend less on the Nov. 6 election results and more on factors that are out of White House control. Savvy observers of the region will watch the 10 “C’s” as the real policy drivers.

The first of these is Castro, as in Raul and Fidel. The U.S. election may bring a moderate tightening or loosening of U.S. restrictions on engagement with the island. The Cuban regime may or may not continue its episodic policy liberalization — Cuban perestroika — as a means to extend rather than overturn the Cuban system. But the real driver of change will be the death of one or both of the Castros. While it’s true that no one has yet won a bet predicting their death, even the Castro brothers will succumb at some point to nature. Each passing year makes that more likely. When they do, there will be a power struggle on the island, and the United States will be faced with the critical decision of how to respond. This will be a game-changer, with historic implications, sucking the oxygen out of other hemispheric policy matters at least for a time. It is the one issue above all others that has the potential to scramble hemispheric policy, putting bilateral relations on the road to normalization and removing an irritant in the broader hemispheric agenda. Or not. The truth is that nobody knows what will come after the Castros, but the U.S. response must be nuanced and appropriate so as to encourage, rather than discourage, the advent of true democracy on the island.

The second “C” is related: Chavez. Having been re-elected Oct. 7 to another presidential term, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez nonetheless is battling cancer, which some say is quite serious; others give a more optimistic prognosis. Whatever the truth, it appears that Chavez is taking steps to position his supporters to continue the Bolivarian Revolution after he passes, most notably with the elevation of Nicolás Maduro to the vice presidency. Still, nobody in Venezuela appears to have the same charisma as Chavez, whose margin of victory in October was much less than in previous elections. Chavez won; Chavismo apparently took it on the chin. A power struggle is a strong possibility after Chavez passes away. Here, again, if Chavez dies, the United States will face an immediate challenge, working with others in the hemispheric including Brazil and Colombia to midwife a peaceful transition with a hoped for institution of the transparent social democratic model that has worked wonders in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and elsewhere in the Americas.

Click here to read the complete article direct from The Huffington Post

Some stories I would have posted from the past 2 weeks (part 2)

Global: As Global Economy Sags, Political Leaders Are AWOL

US – Latin America: Obama and Romney forget Latin America

Latin America – China: Los latinoamericanos de origen chino (parte I)

Latin America – China: El Libro Blanco chino sobre América Latina y el Caribe

Cuba: Cuba Lifts Exit Visa Requirements on Travel for Residents

Peru – China: Perú comienza a pensar en el turismo chino

Spanish language report – Reality of Venezuela China Connection

IMAGE COURTESY OF VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM

Elecciones en Venezuela: la realidad detrás de la conexión china

[Source] : China Files

By Paula Ramón

En 38 años de relaciones diplomáticas entre China y Venezuela, Caracas ha dispensado siete visitas presidenciales a Beijing. Seis de ellas han tenido lugar a partir desde la elección en 1999 de Hugo Chávez. En ese tiempo, la balanza comercial creció de US $1.900 millones hasta los US $10.272 millones en 2010, año en el cual el país caribeño se convirtió en el acreedor del préstamo más alto emitido por entidades bancarias chinas. Sin embargo, más allá de las cifras económicas, la realidad es que China se ha consolidado como un fundamental cliente del petróleo venezolano, pero no se ha convertido en el socio político que Chávez esperaba.

A pesar de los datos comerciales, invertir en Venezuela es “una mala elección” para los empresarios del gigante asiático, según el economista Wang Peng, investigador de la Academia de Ciencias Sociales de China. El especialista en Venezuela del más importante think-tank chino afirma que la nación caribeña sigue siendo un país “extraño” para la mayoría de los chinos, a pesar de los esfuerzos del gobierno venezolano.

De Caracas a Beijing

Antes de cumplir su primer año en la presidencia, Chávez partió en una gira asiática que, entre otros lugares, le permitió pasar tres días en Beijing. Ya en aquella visita señalaba que “China es garante de que el mundo no sucumbirá a un sistema unipolar dominado por una única superpotencia”, en referencia a Estados Unidos –principal socio comercial de Venezuela. Chávez iniciaba un acercamiento con China para sustentar su política anti-americana, movido por lo que él consideraba “una responsabilidad histórica” centrada en supuestas similitudes entre el pensamiento de Mao Zedong y Simón Bolívar.

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Latin America & Asia in focus

China Launches Venezuela’s Resource Monitoring Satellite

[Source] : Ooska News

BEIJING (Space Flight Now) — China launched Venezuela’s second satellite on Saturday, delivering the spacecraft into a 400-mile-high orbit to monitor the country’s territory, survey crops and natural resources, and aid Venezuela.

Click here to read the complete article

Wine: Chilean winemakers set sights on China

[Source] : The Financial Times

By Adam Thomson

It is a bright, spring morning in Chile’s Maipo Valley and at the sprawling vineyard of Cousiño Macul, one of Chile’s smaller wine producers, a tour guide asks visitors to guess what its newest export market is. “China,” he tells the astonished group.

Sales abroad have more than quadrupled since 2000, reaching a record 700m litres with a value of $1.7bn last year. Those figures have helped turn the country in to the world’s fifth-largest wine exporter.

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Japan, Colombia to Launch Free Trade Talks

[Source] : The Journal of Commerce

Hisane Masaki, Special Correspondent | Sep 26, 2012 1:01PM GMT
The Journal of Commerce Online – News Story

Colombia’s FTA partners include the U.S. and Canada

Japan and Colombia have agreed to launch formal negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) aimed at eliminating import tariffs on most products traded between the two countries.

The agreement came when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met in New York on Tuesday, the Japanese government said on Wednesday.  The two leaders are in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said that Japan and Colombia have yet to discuss a specific schedule for the FTA negotiations.

Click here to read the complete article