The role of China in the world and its relation with Argentina

December, 2008
Autor: 
Carlos Galperín
Néstor Stancanelli

Due to its growing share in world GDP and in world trade, China emerges as a new economic power, relevant role it shares with the United States, the European Union and Japan in the international scenario. At the same time, in trade matters, China carries out a twofold task: on the one hand it constitutes a key destination for East Asian countries that supply inputs and capital-intensive goods and, on the other hand, it is a strong exporter of manufactures to developed countries.

In relation to our country, China has been gaining growing importance, and has become its second trade partner after Brazil. Bilateral trade is characterized by its intersectoral character with a concentration of agrifood exports and machine and industrial equipment imports, as opposed to that China has with developed and developing countries in Asia, which is mainly intrasectoral.

The different importance reciprocal trade has for one country or the other, taking into account China’s economic weight, demands that Argentina play an increasingly key role, since it has to take the initiative both in trade promotion matters and in reciprocal investment matters. To that aim, this paper introduces proposals and strategies to further the trade expansion process, ensure the trade flow equilibrium, diversify Argentine export structure and boost investments. (Only the abstract is in English).