While attending the annual meeting of the Latin America Society of China, some academics pointed out that China-Latin America trade will withstand the effects of Argentina's financial crisis because of the slow recovery of the global economy and China's entry into World Trade Organization.

China could still face a reduction in demand for its goods and more anti-dumping charges, or even more serious barriers in the region, they said.

Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said China will continue to make efforts to cultivate emerging markets like Latin America, the Middle East and Russia in the second half of the year.

According to MOFTEC statistics, China's foreign trade with Latin America increased by 13.3 percent year-on-year during the first half of 2002, higher than for the European Union and Japan.

"Any economy will have rises and falls," said Su Zhenxing, president of the society, "but China's projects in the region in areas like mining and petroleum exploitation won't be affected by the local economic situation."

By 2001, China had set up more than 300 enterprises in Latin America with contractual investments of over US$1 billion. The trade volume between China and Latin America rose from US$2 billion in the early 1990s to US$14.9 billion last year, according to statistics.

"The investment environment in Latin America will improve due to the gradual recovery of world economy and the IMF's intervention, noted Jiang Shixue, deputy director with Latin America Studies Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The complementary relations between China and Latin America in resources, technology and market will remain unchanged," Jiang added.

Scholars also warned of the pressure on China's exports brought by the planned Free Trade Area of the Americas.

"Once the 34-country FTA comes into being, freer trade flow would make commodities from the US and Canada more competitive in the region, which would have great impact on China's market shares in Latin America," said Wang Xiaode, professor at Nankai University, one of China's top universities.

However, academics are still optimistic about the future of Sino-Latin American economic cooperation.

"The potential for economic reciprocity and cooperation between China and Latin America will certainly be realized with both markets opening within the WTO framework, said Jiang Guanghua, honorary president of the society.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2002)