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T&T/OECS Report urges: Get closer to China, India
www.newsday.co.tt
June 4 2009
CARICOM needs to strengthen diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and India.
This was one of the recommendations contained in the Trinidad and Tobago/Organisation of East-ern Caribbean States (OECS) integration report. Noting the historical links between Asia and the South-Eastern Caribbean, the report said: "The vibrancy of the Indian and Chinese economies, and the influential role which they will increasingly play in the evolution of rules regulating the international economy will give Caricom as a whole an interest in a deepening of diplomatic relations with those countries."
Closer ties with India and China could enhance the specific interests which Caricom would wish to protect either in a Doha Develop-ment Round or as these two economic titans attempt to settle bilateral or multilateral negotiations in terms of new trade and production arrangements. With India and China showing an increasing interest to participate in the South American economies, Caricom needs to induce "large economic powers such as these to perceive the Caribbean as part of that general area, while being located as a bridging arena, in the Atlantic, between North and South America."
Through their proposed alliance with TT, the OECS will open themselves to "opportunities for investment from the (Asian) sub-continent." Noting that the "long isolation" between Cuba and other nations in the Western Hemi-sphere is slowly being broken down, the report also advocates a strengthening of ties between Caricom and Latin America. While the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) has fallen victim to "a wider hemispheric diplomacy" and a new CBI-CBTPA agreement awaits the outcome of liberalisation/protection policy trends in the United States, favourable access conditions for TT's commodities in the US (specifically natural gas and its industry derivatives) are one of the few trade agreements left standing in the current global economic environment.
The report also suggested that a TT/OECS union explore potential economic opportunities which might exist with European Union (EU) dependencies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe. Prime Minister Patrick Manning said a document outlining a review of this country's foreign policy will be laid in Parliament soon.
Costa Rica cconcentra esfuerzos contra importaciones masivas de China
Equipo negociador planteará ofensiva para lograr cláusula que evite esa práctica Cerveza, jugos, salsas, pastas, carnes y cueros con potencial para vender allá
Marvin Barquero S. - mbarquero@nacion.com
www.nacion.com - 2009/06/15
Costa Rica pondrá como prioridad la aprobación de un mecanismo para protegerse de importaciones masivas, en la tercera ronda de negociaciones para un Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con China, la que se inicia hoy en nuestro país.
'TLC atenderá las sensibilidades '
Por eso intentará, desde el primer momento, que los chinos acepten una salvaguardia especial o aumento de aranceles, de aplicación inmediata en caso de una entrada masiva de productos que lesione a un sector productivo local. Hasta ahora, China acordó salvaguardias generales en sus tratados, pero no una específica como en este caso.
La salvaguardia especial es clave para las aspiraciones de Costa Rica en este TLC, reconoció el jefe negociador costarricense, Fernando Ocampo.
Ese mecanismo permite elevar los aranceles de un producto cuando el volumen de importaciones es demasiado grande.
Costa Rica ya puso sobre la mesa la solicitud. Pretende que la salvaguardia especial sea de aplicación inmediata, lo que evitaría el largo camino de demostración del perjuicio que exigen acuerdos como los de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) para acudir a este mecanismo de defensa comercial.
Según Ocampo, la salvaguardia con las características que pide Costa Rica es mejor defensa para gran cantidad de sectores que incluso la protección con aranceles.
Esa defensa permitiría que casi ningún sector tenga necesidad de ser excluido del TLC con los chinos y aumentaría la cobertura final del acuerdo.
La reunión entre los negociadores chinos y los costarricenses comenzará hoy, lunes, con la expectativa de que se discutirán las segundas ofertas de acceso su mercado presentadas por los países.
Ases. Cada parte se reservó áreas importantes para la otra, y la expectativa consiste en si habrá movimientos en esos campos.
Costa Rica, por ejemplo, tiene gran interés en vender cervezas, jugos, salsas, pastas (en especial de arroz), azúcar y carnes (res, cerdo y pollo) con beneficios del libre comercio en China; pero estos bienes todavía no fueron incluidos por los chinos en sus ofertas.
Al contrario, para China es muy importante colocar aquí plásticos, productos de metal-mecánica, algunos materiales de construcción, textiles, llantas y otros. Costa Rica también se reservó estos rubros y no le ha ofrecido, hasta ahora, nada a los negociadores chinos.
Costa Rica también aprovechará esta tercera ronda para presentar ante los chinos un programa completo de cooperación, el cual tiene como uno de sus principales aspectos el intercambio de tecnología y la traída de especialistas de ese país a dar asesoramientos a productores nacionales.
La tercera ronda también está rodeada de protestas de algunos sectores que a esta altura de las negociaciones no se han superado.
Fernando Ocampo considera que algunas inquietudes son justificadas y que, mediante una coordinación estrecha con los empresarios, se atenderán esas "sensibilidades". Otras, en cambio, no son sensibilidades reales, según las consideraciones de Ocampo.
Parte de las inquietudes de varios sectores es controlar la calidad de los productos importados. En este sentido, reveló Ocampo, ya se atendieron las solicitudes de varios empresarios y se trabaja actualmente en establecer reglamentos técnicos, en coordinación con el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC).
Esta normalización especializada se emitirá para materiales de construcción, medicamentos y llantas hasta este momento, porque son los sectores que se acercaron a exponer inquietudes.
En tales sectores, el Gobierno no tenía la opción de controlar con claridad la calidad de los productos importados pues no se contaba con referencia técnica para medirla.
Deals Help China Expand Sway in Latin America
By SIMON ROMERO and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
CARACAS, Venezuela
www.nytimes.com - April 15, 2009
As Washington tries to rebuild its strained relationships in Latin America, China is stepping in vigorously, offering countries across the region large amounts of money while they struggle with sharply slowing economies, a plunge in commodity prices and restricted access to credit.
In recent weeks, China has been negotiating deals to double a development fund in Venezuela to $12 billion, lend Ecuador at least $1 billion to build a hydroelectric plant, provide Argentina with access to more than $10 billion in Chinese currency and lend Brazil's national oil company $10 billion. The deals largely focus on China locking in natural resources like oil for years to come.
China's trade with Latin America has grown quickly this decade, making it the region's second largest trading partner after the United States. But the size and scope of these loans point to a deeper engagement with Latin America at a time when the Obama administration is starting to address the erosion of Washington's influence in the hemisphere.
"This is how the balance of power shifts quietly during times of crisis," said David Rothkopf, a former Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration. "The loans are an example of the checkbook power in the world moving to new places, with the Chinese becoming more active."
Mr. Obama will meet with leaders from the region this weekend. They will discuss the economic crisis, including a plan to replenish the Inter-American Development Bank, a Washington-based pillar of clout that has suffered losses from the financial crisis. Leaders at the summit meeting are also expected to push Mr. Obama to further loosen the United States policy toward Cuba.
Meanwhile, China is rapidly increasing its lending in Latin America as it pursues not only long-term access to commodities like soybeans and iron ore, but also an alternative to investing in United States Treasury notes.
One of China's new deals in Latin America, the $10 billion arrangement with Argentina, would allow Argentina reliable access to Chinese currency to help pay for imports from China. It may also help lead the way to China's currency to eventually be used as an alternate reserve currency. The deal follows similar ones China has struck with countries like South Korea, Indonesia and Belarus.
As the financial crisis began to whipsaw international markets last year, the Federal Reserve made its own currency arrangements with central banks around the world, allocating $30 billion each to Brazil and Mexico. (Brazil has opted not to tap it for now.) But smaller economies in the region, including Argentina, which has been trying to dispel doubts about its ability to meet its international debt payments, were left out of those agreements.
Details of the Chinese deal with Argentina are still being ironed out, but an official at Argentina's central bank said it would allow Argentina to avoid using scarce dollars for all its international transactions. The takeover of billions of dollars in private pension funds, among other moves, led Argentines to pull the equivalent of nearly $23 billion, much of it in dollars, out of the country last year.
Dante Sica, the lead economist at Abeceb, a consulting firm in Buenos Aires, said the Chinese overtures in the region were made possible by the "lack of attention that the United States showed to Latin America during the entire Bush administration."
China is also seizing opportunities in Latin America when traditional lenders over which the United States holds some sway, like the Inter-American Development Bank, are pushing up against their limits.
Just one of China's planned loans, the $10 billion for Brazil's national oil company, is almost as much as the $11.2 billion in all approved financing by the Inter-American Bank in 2008. Brazil is expected to use the loan for offshore exploration, while agreeing to export as much as 100,000 barrels of oil a day to China, according to the oil company.
The Inter-American bank, in which the United States has de facto veto power in some matters, is trying to triple its capital and increase lending to $18 billion this year. But the replenishment involves delicate negotiations among member nations, made all the more difficult after the bank lost almost $1 billion last year.
China will also have a role in these talks, having become a member of the bank this year.
China has also pushed into Latin American countries where the United States has negligible influence, like Venezuela.
In February, China's vice president, Xi Jinping, traveled to Caracas to meet with President Hugo Chávez. The two men announced that a Chinese-backed development fund based here would grow to $12 billion from $6 billion, giving Venezuela access to hard currency while agreeing to increase oil shipments to China to one million barrels a day from a level of about 380,000 barrels.
Mr. Chávez's government contends the Chinese aid differs from other multilateral loans because it comes without strings attached, like scrutiny of internal finances. But the Chinese fund has generated criticism among his opponents, who view it as an affront to Venezuela's sovereignty.
"The fund is a swindle to the nation," said Luis Díaz, a lawmaker who claims that China locked in low prices for the oil Venezuela is using as repayment.
Despite forging ties to Venezuela and extending loans to other nations that have chafed at Washington's clout, Beijing has bolstered its presence without bombast, perhaps out of an awareness that its relationship with the United States is still of paramount importance. But this deference may not last.
"This is China playing the long game," said Gregory Chin, a political scientist at York University in Toronto. "If this ultimately translates into political influence, then that is how the game is played."
China's Maturing Relationship with Latin America
China Brief - Volume: 9 Issue: 6 March 18, 2009
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34723&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=e9c8d14e49
by Evan Ellis
The five-nation visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Latin America in conjunction with the November 2004 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit in Santiago, Chile, marked the beginning of a fundamental transformation in China's relationship with Latin America. Prior to that trip, the People's Republic of China (PRC) had almost no presence in the mainstream Latin American political, business and social discourse. The message sent by President Hu and his delegation during that trip was the Chinese intent to promote and accelerate a nascent partnership with the region.
Following Santiago, four years elapsed before the site of the annual APEC summit returned to Latin America. When President Hu traveled to the region in November 2008 to attend the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, the trip highlighted how far China's relationship with Latin America had evolved in only four years.
President Hu's trip came just weeks after the PRC's induction as a voting member of the Inter-American Development Bank. It also coincided with the release of China's first policy paper on the region, "China's Policy Paper on Latin American and the Caribbean." The paper confirms Beijing's intention to expand its engagement with Latin America on multiple fronts, from investment to technology partnerships to military exchanges [1]. En route to Lima, President Hu stopped in Costa Rica, which in June 2007 became the first Central American nation in the post-Cold War era to switch its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to mainland China. In Cuba, Hu signed 37 agreements and had a photo op with an ailing Fidel Castro, which reinforced China's role as Cuba's principal extra-hemispheric patron [2]. In addition, the APEC summit highlighted the efforts of Peru and Chile to position themselves as commercial hubs in the developing trade between China and South America.
The Maturation of the Trade Relationship
Since 2004, China's relationship with Latin America has not only expanded quantitatively, but has also matured qualitatively in terms of both transactions and knowledge.
The growth of China-Latin America bilateral trade from $10 billion in 2000 to $102.6 billion by the end of 2007 [3] reflects two reinforcing phenomena: 1) the expansion of commodity exports to China by a small set of southern cone countries, and 2) a broad-based penetration by China into Latin American product markets.
The primary products purchased by China from Latin America have been commodities such as iron, copper, soy and fishmeal that do not require complex transactions or an extensive local presence. As PRC experience with the region has grown, however, it has cautiously established an investment presence in key commodity sectors. In Venezuela, it moved from modest oilfield operations in the Lake Maracaibo area to a more important and potentially riskier presence as a minority partner in developing the massive heavy oil reserves in the Orinoco river basin. In Peru, China Aluminum Corporation committed to invest up to 2.2 billion over the next 30 years for the rights to operate a mine at Toromocho [4]. In February 2009, during an official visit to Brazil, Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping signed a preliminary accord for a $10 billion loan to the Brazilian national oil company Petrobras, providing it with capital for developing new deepwater oil reserves, which could ultimately be exported to the PRC [5].
In some cases, these investments have proven problematic for the PRC. Two years after a Chinese consortium invested $1.42 billion to purchase the Ecuadoran assets of the Canadian oil firm EnCana in 2006. The Ecuadoran government forced the Chinese to give up property rights in oil fields that had been part of the purchase and sign a new contract in which they simply extracted oil from the territory under a service contract with Ecuador [6]. Hutchison Whampoa Limited was forced to withdraw from a concession to operate the port of Manta when it could not resolve a dispute with the Ecuadoran government concerning the contractual obligations for investment in the port [7]. In Chile, China Minmetals invested $550 million in a copper advance purchase agreement with the state mining company COLDELCO, only to discover in 2009 that the agreement did not give it the expected right to acquire a 49 percent stake in the new Chilean mine "Gabriel Mistral" [8]. In Venezuela, a 2006 decision by PdVSA to stop producing the heavy petroleum product ormulsion left in the lurch a power plant built by the Chinese to use it [9].
Beyond commodities, select Latin American companies such as Grupo Modelo, FEMSA and GRUMA have made some progress building markets in the PRC, selling recognized brand name products to the growing Chinese middle class. Latin American governments have also improved their ability to support their nationals seeking to do business in China, opening commercial attaché offices in secondary locations such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, in addition to their embassies in Beijing. They are also expanding and refining the capabilities of trade promotion organizations tied to the government such as ProChile, APEX, Fundacion Exportar, PROCOMER, and CORPEI. Additionally, they have created technical frameworks to support trade and investment including bilateral free trade agreements with China, such as those of Chile (2006), Peru (2009), and Costa Rica (initiated November 2008), as well as reciprocal investment protection agreements (Colombia, November 2008) and individual phytosanitary agreements. Nonetheless, those governments and producers have discovered that despite such efforts, traditional products such as coffee and fruits have not sold well in the PRC. In addition to issues of Chinese tastes, these perishable products and the labor required to harvest them makes them uncompetitive against closer, lower-cost producers such as the Philippines.
With respect to Chinese exports to Latin America, the PRC has not only increased its market share, but also the sophistication of its product offering in Latin American consumer markets. As factories in the PRC produced more items and Latin American traders became more sophisticated in dealing with those factories, China has complimented its offering of labor-intensive manufactured goods such as clothing, toys and footwear with a broad selection of Chinese motorcycles, cars, heavy machinery, appliances, and consumer electronics. The PRC has also launched projects to build assembly facilities in the region itself, leveraging the access to third-country markets afforded by regional free trade agreements. Chinese auto companies DongFeng, Geeley, and FAW [10], for example, have announced plans to create assembly plants in the Mexican maquiladora sector, in order to achieve duty-free access to the U.S. car market under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Finally, China or Hong Kong-based companies with a more multinational character have expanded their physical presence in the region to service clients. These companies include the logistics company Hutchison-Whampoa, China Overseas Shipping Company (COSCO), the telecommunications companies ZTE and Huawei, and Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China (HSBC).
The Expanding Influence of China
Although the expanding volume of trade and investment between the PRC and Latin America is impressive, perhaps the most significant transformation has been the expanding weight of the PRC in the calculations of political leaders, businesspeople, and others in the region.
The perception that China is emerging as a key economic and political player has been a powerful motivator for leaders to invest time and resources to leverage, accommodate, or defend against such a future. The decision by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to diplomatically recognize the PRC in June 2007 was motivated, in part, by his conviction that positioning his country in line with China's rise was necessary for it to play a leading role in the Americas. The investment of time by Latin American leaders to promote their countries' commercial and political relationship with the PRC through official visits to China has been similarly impressive. During 2008, for instance, four Latin American heads-of-state made high-level visits to China accompanied by trade and investment-oriented delegations: Peruvian President Alan Garcia (February), Chilean President Michele Bachelet (April), Mexican President Felipe Calderon (July), and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (September).
In the private sector, the calculation of businesspeople that the PRC will be among the most important markets of the future has motivated a wide range of corporate leaders to dedicate significant time and capital to position themselves in China, even when those companies do not expect to generate a profit from their China operations for years.
In the academic world, Chinese language programs and China studies programs in Latin American universities have proliferated since 2004. While the United States remains a dominant cultural and economic reference, a growing mass of Latin American students are investing their futures in the expectations of China's future importance.
The Impact of the Global Recession
The transformation of China's relationship with Latin America during the past four years is an inadequate measure of the rate of change to come. In particular, the deepening global recession, which may bring about financial and political upheaval, can fundamentally transform the roles of actors such as the PRC in the international system.
In the short to medium term, the recession is likely to severely strain China's relationship with Latin America. The PRC is likely to reduce its purchase of primary products from Latin America, while simultaneously seeking to boost its sale of goods there to compensate for lost sales to its traditional customers in the United States and Europe. This will exacerbate the existing trade deficit. The diminishing benefits of the PRC as a customer of Latin American goods, in combination with heightened competition from China as a major seller-as Latin American producers teeter on the edge of solvency-is likely to strengthen political forces with the social constituency in the region critical of trade with China This could fuel local resentment against Chinese companies' actions such as the 2006 takeover of an Andes petroleum oil field in Tarapoa, Ecuador [12], or the 2007 violence against the Chinese company Petroriental in Orellana [13]. It could also foment violence against ethnic Chinese in the region, as demonstrated by the incidents in 2004 against Chinese shopkeepers in the Venezuelan communities of Maracay and Valencia [14]. Such events may also motivate the PRC to work with governments in the region in new ways to protect PRC businesses and the Chinese Diaspora in ways that it did not do during the previous century when the PRC was weaker.
At the same time, if the PRC is able to effectively manage the tensions generated by economic conditions, both at home and in Latin America, it may emerge from the crisis with a dramatically stronger position in the region. The evaporation of Western capital from the region has increased the region's leaders' focus on the PRC and its $2 trillion in foreign currency reserves as a potential new source of global liquidity and investment. The steep decline in global commodity prices and asset values provide an opportunity for the PRC to acquire more assets in Latin America at bargain prices, while also winning influence and goodwill for investing in the region at a time in which Western investors are not.
As the global recession deepened in February 2009, for the first time ever, two senior Chinese officials made simultaneous multi-country trips to the region. Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, mentioned as a likely successor to Hu Jintao, paid visits to Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico, while Hui Liangyu, the Chinese vice-premier, made trips to Argentina, Barbados, Ecuador, and the Bahamas. Other factors must be considered as well, such as how the crisis affects the competitive position between China and other outside players in Latin America, such as India. While it is difficult to determine the outcome of such interactions, it is likely that the next time that APEC hosts its annual summit in Latin America, the region's relationship with China will have evolved as much, if not more, than the change witnessed from the 2004 Santiago summit to the 2008 summit in Lima.
Notes
1. "Full text: China's Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean." China View. Beijing, China. news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/05/content_10351493.htm. November 5, 2008.
2. "Cuba propuso a China 37 proyectos por $1,500 millones." El NuevoHerald. Miami, Florida. elnuevoherald.com. November 23, 2008.
3. "Total Import and Export Value by Country (Region) (2007/01-12)". Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.. Http://english.mofcom.gov.cn.aarticle/statistic/ie/200802/20080205371690.html. February 4, 2008.
4. "Proyecto Toromocho generará 5,000 empleos durante su construcción, señala presidente García (ampliación)." Andina. Lima, Peru. www.andina.com.pe. May 5, 2008.
5. "China considera millonaria financiación de Petrobras." La Nacion. Buenos Aires, Argentina. www.la-nacion.com.ar. February 20, 2009.
6. "La Andes Petroleum y Repsol logran un acuerdo." El Universo. Guayaquil, Ecuador. www.eluniverso.com. August 9, 2008.
7. "Hutchison ya no seguirá en el puerto del Manta" El Universo. Guayaquil, Ecuador. www.eluniverso.com. 8 February 2009.
8. "Codelco y Minmetals podrían acudir a arbitraje por Gaby." Diario Financiero. Santiago, Chile. www.df.cl. July 16, 2008.
9. "China sólo se quedará con dos tercerios de la ormulsión del segundo módulo." El Universal. Caracas, Venezuela. www.eluniversal.
com. April 11, 2006.
10. "Chinese cars coming to Mexico." BusinessWeek. www.businessweek.com. November 23, 2007.
11. Eight Confucius institutes have been established in South America alone, none of which existed in 2004. See "Worldwide Confucius Institutes." Official website. www.linese.com/confucius_institutes/search. Accessed 1 March 2009. New or significantly expanded Asia studies program in Universidad EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia Universidad San Fransisco in Quito, Ecuador, the Escuela Polyechnica del littoral (ESPOL) in Guayaquil, Ecuador and the Universidad de Manta, among others.
12. "Petrolera china dice que incidentes en Amazonia no afectarán sus intereses en Latinoamérica." El Comercio. Quito, Ecuador. www.elcomercio.com. November 14, 2006.
13. "Protestas contra Petrooriental dejan 31 heridas en ocho dias." El Comercio. Quito, Ecuador. www.elcomercio.com. July 4, 2007.
14. Yolanda Ojeda Reyes, "Ciudanos Chinos Reciben Protección" El Universal. Caracas, Venezuela. www.eluniversal.com. November 11, 2004.
China se ofrece para ayudar a Latinoamérica a superar la crisis
Medellín (Colombia)
28 mar (EFE)
China, miembro del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) desde el pasado enero, ofreció hoy su ayuda a los países de América Latina y Caribe para superar la crisis a través de inversiones y una mayor cooperación financiera.
El gobernador del Banco Popular de China, Xiaochuan Zhou, dijo en la ciudad colombiana de Medellín (noroeste), donde se celebra la 50 asamblea anual del BID, que como nuevo miembro "China está dispuesta a aprovechar esta oportunidad para mejorar la cooperación de las relaciones financieras y comerciales" en el contexto de la crisis.
Durante su intervención ante la Asamblea, Xiaochuan consideró que esta crisis ha generado una reducción de la liquidez, por ello "la cooperación entre países puede compensar las pérdidas comerciales y la disminución de la inversión".
En este contexto, "China quisiera aprovechar esta oportunidad", dijo el gobernador del Banco Popular, al expresar que las condiciones de la relación China-Latinoamérica están dadas.
Explicó que, desde 2001, el comercio entre China y esta región ha ido creciendo a un ritmo del 40 por ciento anual hasta llegar en 2008 a 140.000 millones de dólares (105.302 millones de euros).
"Las importaciones y exportaciones han tenido balance positivo en general y China ha sido uno de los socios más grandes de la región latinoamericana", matizó.
Aclaró que, además de bienes tradicionales, el gigante asiático también ha exportado productos de alta tecnología y otros de valor agregado.
"Además, los países latinoamericanos han invertido sumas significativas en China", agregó, al hablar de un total de 14.000 millones de dólares (10.530 millones de euros).
Según Xiaochuan, la inversión china directa en América Latina y el Caribe asciende a 24.000 millones de dólares (18.052 millones de euros), incluidos unos 3.000 millones de dólares (2.256 millones de euros) en préstamos.
Recordó que, en los últimos años, China firmó un Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con Chile y culminó negociaciones con Perú, además inició conversaciones para un acuerdo de este tipo con Costa Rica y rubricó acuerdos para la promoción de inversiones con varios países de la región, entre ellos Colombia.
"Estas cifras nos muestran que podemos manejar de forma exitosa el comercio para aumentar la inversión, especialmente en el sector financiero, con el BID y otros bancos de desarrollo, que podrían desarrollar operaciones y reducir el impacto neto de la crisis financiera global", matizó.
El gobernador de Banco Popular de China dijo que su país ve oportunidades de inversión en sectores vinculados a satélites, aeronáutica, biología, farmacia, software.
Además, "tenemos en cuenta el sector servicios: finanzas, transporte y turismo", agregó, al matizar que la región "necesita una reestructuración industrial mayor".
"Quisiéramos dar ayuda en materia de financiación en infraestructuras y fomento del comercio", agregó.
Manifestó que "hay posibilidades para considerar inversiones", pero agregó que esto se irá dando de acuerdo a un proceso para conocer mejor la región latinoamericana, sus condiciones políticas y económicas, y también su idioma.
"El potencial que tiene china para la inversión directa en la región es enorme", manifestó Xiaochuan, quien aseguró que la experiencia de China en materia de construcción de grandes infraestructuras se pondrá al servicio de América Latina.
China and Caribbean
The View from Europe
By David Jessop, Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david.jessop@caribbean-council.org
Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org
March 23, 2009
When Jamaica's Usain Bolt effortlessly won the one hundred metres in the August 2008 Beijing Olympics, it became a defining moment of an event that cemented China's global presence in the minds of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
That it involved a citizen of the Latin American and Caribbean provided an unexpected bonus to Beijing at a time when it was finalising its policy towards the region and Latin America.
In November, China released its first policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean. It did so just days ahead of a Latin American tour by its President, Hu Jintao, aimed at deepening ties with the region.
The Chinese President visited Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru. Subsequently in February of this year, the Chinese Vice President, Xi Jinping, visited Jamaica, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Chinese Vice Premier, Hui Liangyu, travelled to Argentina, Ecuador, Barbados and the Bahamas. The timing and level at which the three visits took place, demonstrated China's intent to fully engage in carefully differentiated ways in the Hemisphere.
According to the Director-General of the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs in the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, Yang Wanming, the paper had taken a long time to prepare, draft and revise.
Strikingly it is more comprehensive in scope than any similar document produced over the last decade by Europe, the US or Canada and as such is worth greater consideration than it was given in the regional media when published.
It begins with the simple but central observation that the global move toward multi-polarity is irreversible. It goes on to make clear that as the largest developing country in the world, China is seeking to cooperate with all countries and regards improved relations with Latin American and the Caribbean as offering new opportunities.
The paper notes that China's engagement is strategic and that it seeks to build a comprehensive partnership based on equality, mutual benefit and development with, as an underlying principle, a one China policy. In doing so it says it expects to 'expand strategic common ground' and will show understanding and support on issues involving core interests and major concerns through economic cooperation and trade.
In practical terms the policy paper spells out that China wishes to develop high level political exchange, exchanges between legislatures and political parties, establish consultation mechanisms and identify areas of co-operation in international affairs.
At an economic level the paper makes clear that China will seek to develop two-way trade and will support Chinese companies in investing in manufacturing, agriculture and services. It also identifies the possibility of co-operation on financial issues, agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources and energy, customs, debt reduction and cancellation, as well as through the provision of economic and technical assistance. It makes reference to helping south-south development and to encouraging commercial exchanges between business communities. There is language about culture, sports, science, technology, education, medical care, the media and many other areas.
Interestingly, in what appears to indicate China's eventual global role, the policy paper also refers to military exchanges and it intention to begin a defense dialogue and to support Latin American and Caribbean countries on a wide range of activities that 'will enhance security co-operation at all levels'.
Placed in perspective, it is a statement of a super power willing to co-operate in virtually all aspects of relations with Latin America and the Caribbean that makes clear that the region can no longer be regarded as one in which the US Government alone exercises influence.
Putting this policy into action in the Caribbean, it would seem that China is now placing a particular emphasis on developing its economic and other relations with the United States near neighbours, the nations of Western Caribbean.
As is well known, China has for long time enjoyed a close relationship with Cuba that involves significant amounts of development assistance, trade - China is Cuba's second biggest trading partner with bilateral trade standing at $2.3bn in 2007 - investment, scientific co-operation and military exchange.
But Jamaica too has become a prominent partner for China which recently provided some US$118m for technical and economic cooperation. A new arrangement includes a cooperation agreement between the Export-Import Banks of China that establishes a US$100m line of credit for short-term trade financing; a US$10m agreement for concessional financing between the Development Bank of Jamaica and the Chinese National Development Bank; a US$7.3m provision for technical and economic support; and a US$1.1m agreement for the provision of agricultural equipment and machinery.
In addition, agreements have been reached on technical and economic support in other areas including tourism and the establishment of a Confucius Institute at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, for the teaching of the Chinese language.
Speaking recently about the significance of the relationship Jamaica's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, said that other important public and private sector initiatives were under discussions and "that there were no limits to the extent to which cooperation between Jamaica and China might grow".
In a further indication of the growing depth of the relationship and his desire to develop an independent global foreign policy, the Jamaican Prime Minister also made clear that broader global issues have also been discussed. "It is quite clear to me that cooperation between Jamaica and China will move beyond just the parameters of bilateral arrangements, to seek to effect meaningful change to the global financial and economic arrangements," he stated recently.
Prime Minister Golding is expected to visit China later this year and further economic agreements are expected may be announced.
The Bahamas and China too have extended their bilateral cooperation with the signing of an economic and technical agreement that will make available some US$10m for projects. Both countries have also agreed to a new framework for cooperation in agriculture and in other areas. In Haiti, China too, is involved in peacekeeping and has shown some interest in agriculture while in the Dominican Republic where the ties between the Republic's President and Taiwan remain strong; there remains an interest in trying to identify how movement forward might be possible albeit at a slow pace.
China has become a major regional player. It is increasingly involved in providing finance for hemispheric institutions such as the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter American Development Bank. Soon a moment will come when the region and all others beyond will have to find ways to co-ordinate their development policies with those being delivered by Beijing.
China tries peddling its wares in . China?
Chinese exports fell by 26 percent in February so China is now hoping to find domestic buyers for goods once bound for American shopping malls.
By Peter Ford
www.csmonitor.com - March 12, 2009 edition
Liu Dequan says he has had to alter the ornamental lamps his firm had fashioned for the US market. He's changed the plugs to fit Chinese sockets.
"Since the financial crisis happened I have had no foreign business at all," Mr. Liu laments. "I decided that I have to work on the domestic market no matter how difficult it is."
He is not alone. Chinese exports are in free fall, according to government figures released Wednesday, dropping by 26 percent in February from a year earlier, after a 17.5 percent drop in January.
Liu is one of 30 or so Chinese manufacturers currently selling their export wares instead to Chinese consumers at a month-long fair in China's Yansha shopping mall, the country's largest.
Organized by the Beijing Department of Commerce, the sales drive is designed both to introduce ailing exporters to new markets and to encourage consumers to spend money on goods they may never have seen before.
It has been a hit with shoppers. The mall's doors were mobbed well before opening Thursday morning, as security men with bullhorns tried to keep order among the hordes.
Whether this kind of event can really help put the pep back in the Chinese economy, however, is uncertain. The growth of China's gross domestic product could be as low as 5 percent this year, some analysts say, down from 9 percent in 2008.
"I don't think that in the short term domestic consumption can make up for the loss of exports," says Xiang Songzuo, an independent economist. "Exports have fallen quickly and consumption will grow more slowly."
There are some signs that increased consumption might cushion the blow, however. Auto sales surged 25 percent last month from a year earlier, in the wake of a 50 percent cut in the purchase tax on small vehicles that the government's stimulus package introduced last November.
Nothing as large as a car is on offer at the Yansha mall; the temporary stalls set up in the corridors sell household items such as jewelry, water purifiers, clothes, hi-fi speakers, and photo frames.
Electric yogurtmakers have proved a particularly spectacular success. "We've sold 200 so far today," says Zhang Hong, general manager of Rikon, after only an hour's business Thursday, which saw her standing in front of a pile of cardboard cartons frantically handing out $14 models as a line of customers lengthened.
"We used to sell only in the US and Europe, but we've been affected by the crisis so we are switching our attention to the domestic market," she added. Though her firm no longer enjoys the tax rebates that the government offers to encourage exports, Ms. Zhang says, the higher prices she can charge here keep profit margins up.
One happy customer was Liu Jingzhu, a middle-aged economics researcher at a government-run think tank. "Exports are very difficult at the moment so they are selling to local consumers," she said. "Lucky for us.
"I couldn't find this in China normally," she added. "You seldom see export-quality goods on the shelves here."
That seemed to explain the size of the crowds of shoppers who gathered in a curious crush around the stalls. "People think the quality of export goods is better," says a young man selling glass ornaments who would give only his surname, Ma. "And they are right. We can't put any lead in things we sell abroad, for example."
At a nearby stall, salesmen sang the praises of robotic vacuum cleaners equipped with MP3 players or webcams. "We used to do 70 percent of our business with Europe and Southeast Asia," says marketing manager Qian Xinxin. "We've suffered a lot from the financial crisis.
"It won't be possible to make up for all our international losses, but we can compensate a little" through domestic sales, Ms. Qian says.
Several manufacturers said they were not especially looking forward to working in the Chinese market. They compared the relative ease of doing a few big deals with a foreign buyer with the complications of selling to many different retail outlets here that pose restocking problems and do not always pay their bills quickly. The risk of seeing their products copied and undercut is also greater in China, they say.
But many Chinese exporters don't have much of a choice. Mr. Liu, the lamp and furniture maker, for example, thought he had a massive deal with a Los Angeles buyer whose chain of stores went bankrupt last year. "If I'd got that deal I would not be here today," he says, dusting off an ornate enamel lamp stand.
Not all is lost, though. The Beijing Department of Commerce arranged the same sort of meetings for Liu with retailers in the capital as it has done for all the companies at the fair. Three stores have expressed interest in his goods, he says, and "if things go well I think I can make up my losses.
"Still," he adds wistfully, "I am looking forward to an economic recovery in the US."
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