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.

This week, China and El Salvador announced that they will start the negotiations for a trade agreement. This will be the fourth set of trade talks between a Latin American country and China that have begun this year, as China's trade with the region has been growing steadily.

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.

During a recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Argentine President Alberto Fernández, the two governments signed multiple documents indicating more collaboration on trade, investment, currency, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

At a press conference [https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-ecuadorian-foreign-minister-mauricio-montalvo-at-a-joint-press-availability/] during a visit to Ecuador, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterpart Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Mauricio Montalvo were asked about U.S.-China economic competition in the region. Montalvo emphasized that "as the United States has commercial

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 July 13, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) spoke [https://www.congress.gov/117/crec/2021/07/13/167/122/CREC-2021-07-13-pt1-PgS4837-4.pdf] on the Senate floor about China’s growing economic influence in Latin America: > Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last night I had an interesting dinner. Senator Chris Coons of