China and Latin America: Praise from All Parties at Panama Summit

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – During the three-day summit, nearly two thousand entrepreneurs, officials and politicians from Latin America, the Caribbean and China met in Panama.

In addition, more than 1,000 companies took part in the summit’s exhibition, including 600 companies from Latin America and the Caribbean and around 400 Chinese companies.

Speaking at the opening, the President of the Organizing Committee, Gabriel Barletta, stressed the role played by the Summit over the past 13 years. Regarding this year’s host country, he added that Panama had been chosen for its political and economic stability, which favored the business environment between entrepreneurs and investors.

He also stressed that the geographical location strongly influenced the decision to hold the meeting in Panama. One of the goals was that China would be one of the main users of the Panama Canal.

Jorge Juan De La Guardia, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Panama, said this was an excellent opportunity for Panama to offer its logistics and services platform as the headquarters for Chinese value-adding industries.

Panama’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Ramón Martínez, stressed the advantages of the Asian partner country: “China is definitely an attractive market for multilateral investors as well as for small and medium-sized enterprises”.

Verónica Zavala, the representative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Panama, stressed that the XIII China-LAC Business Summit is today a top-level forum on a global scale and an invaluable tool for business growth through export promotion and foreign investment.

“Trade is becoming increasingly global, but it continues to be based on personal contacts. More and better investment will benefit China as well as Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Zavala.

Meanwhile, the United States, which was not represented at the meeting, was indirectly criticized for its trade protectionism. The trend towards globalization is at risk, even though tariffs on freight traffic have been lowered and a certain amount of social assistance has been created, said Giovanni Ferrari, manager of the Colón Free Trade Area in Panama City.

China and Panama have a responsibility to work towards greater free market access as other countries that have promoted free markets in the past now have a different vision.

In 2018, trade volume between China and Latin America reached a record high of US$307.4 billion, an increase of 19 percent over 2017, Martínez said, quoting Chinese customs data.

The three-day China-Latin America-Caribbean Summit is the most significant economic event where companies from these regions have met since 2007 to promote economic, cultural, political and academic exchange.