China-Latin America trade volume hits record-high of $518.4 bln in 2024

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(ECNS) -- China's economic and trade cooperation with Latin American countries has continued to expand in recent years, with the trade volume hitting a record high of $518.47 billion, up 6.0 percent year on year, according to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Tuesday.

From January to March 2025, China-Latin America trade totaled $118.30 billion, of which China exported $65.73 billion and imported $52.58 billion, said the MOC.

Meanwhile, mutual investment between China and Latin America continues to expand. Data shows that in 2024, China's direct investment in Latin America amounted to $14.71 billion and in January-March 2025, China's industry-wide direct investment in Latin America amounted to $270 million. As of March 2025, Latin American countries have invested and established 37,000 enterprises in China.

Countries such as Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Mexico have become the main markets for Chinese enterprises to carry out ntracted engineering business.

By the end of 2024, China had signed a total of $300.61 billion of contracted projects in Latin America, with a completed turnover of 190.78 billion dollars. From January to March 2025, China signed 14.68 billion dollars of new contracted projects, with a completed turnover of 5.99 billion dollars.

Moreover, the development of the pilot free trade zones between China and Latin America has yielded fruitful results. In January and May 2024, the China-Nicaragua and China-Ecuador free trade agreements officially entered into force, respectively.

The upgraded protocol of the China-Chile free trade agreement and the China-Costa Rica free trade agreement have been implemented smoothly, while the substantive negotiations on the upgrade of the China-Peru free trade agreement have been completed.

(By Zhang Dongfang)