FT China Confidential: Latin America May Replace the EU as China’s Biggest Trading Partner in 2017

Plenty of companies in China are seeking for new markets to confront the European debt crisis. Both the incredibly growth of developing countries and the dramatic downturn of western economy make these companies give up paying attention to US and Europe markets and turn to rapid growing Asia, Africa, and Latin America markets instead.

HSBC figures show the amounts of products that China exported to Europe in the first five months of 2012 declined by 0.8% over the same period last year. The export volume of the same period of 2011 was up 18% over 2010 while the growth rate has slowed down compared to 34% in 2010.

According to the introduction of FT China Confidential by Universities Service Center for China Studies, which is the subsidiary of Financial Times, this trend is changing China’s trading situation. From the end of 2009 to the end of 2011, the trading volume between China and Latin America increased 113%, amounted to USD24.15 billion. FT China Confidential forecasts if the trend remains, it’s possible Latin America takes the place of the EU as China’s biggest trading partner in 2017.