A new report by a pair of scholars looks at Chinese lending in Latin America and the Caribbean, concluding that while loan amounts remain low by historical standards, the increase in lending this year "is indicative of continued Chinese interest in establishing strong diplomatic ties across the region."

China's Customs recently issued regulatory requirements for imports of honey from Cuba, after the two nations agreed to promote trade last month. This follows a decline of bilateral trade in recent years.

A recently published briefing paper entitled "Trade Aspects of China’s Presence in Latin America and Caribbean," requested by the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, examines the role of China in these regions and proposes EU responses.

Last week, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on China's Role in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this piece we highlight the parts of the discussion most closely connected to economic issues in the region.

Thirteen Republican members of the House of Representatives -- a list of these members is included at the end of this piece -- sent a letter [https://crawford.house.gov/uploadedfiles/scan.pdf] to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai expressing concern about "the growing influence and intensified engagement

On September 30, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) issued its 25th report on the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) [https://usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5231.pdf], a U.S. program "intended to encourage economic growth and development in the Caribbean Basin countries by promoting increased production