Sino-Colombian Trade Relations (1980-2010): A Case Of Asymmetric Relation Between China And Latin America

This is a paper on the history of trade between the Republic of Colombia and the People's Republic of China, which embraces the thirty of years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries. As statement of the problem, I argue that trade relations are asymmetric since there is a disparity of capacities, which is reflected in the evolution of the balance of trade: since the early 1990s, Colombia has imported from China more products than those Colombia has exported. The two governments have promoted bilateral trade actively and national exports have increased greatly in both cases, but nowadays Colombia faces an enormous deficit in the balance of trade with respect to China. Since the level of development is quite dissimilar from one country to another, the situation is unlikely to change in the near future and China plays the role of the stronger while Colombia plays the weaker. In addition, Colombia still has not found a product to be sold in great scale in the Chinese market like other countries in Latin America already did without having such asymmetries with China.Under these conditions, the main puzzle I try to solve is to what extent Colombia is able to reduce the deficit in the balance of trade with respect to China, since Colombia's productive capacities are limited compared to the Chinese. I am concerned about the possibilities of increasing Colombian exports to China, so I formulate the following hypothesis: as a means to reduce the deficit in the balance of trade with respect to China, when trying to sell products Colombia could focus on strategic Chinese provinces where disparities of capacities are more tenuous than the ones existing at the national level and that represent potential markets for Colombian products too. In fact, the main objective of the paper is to determine whether this hypothesis is feasible or not. Moreover, we argue that there are already important mechanisms of bilateral cooperation to further stimulate such approach to the Chinese market as a result of the spread of the Chinese leadership throughout the region, especially during the last decade.Until now there were only few works published on either economic or diplomatic relations between Colombia and China but this is the first one that embraces the period 1980-2010, what makes this paper a new. The holistic historical view, the arguments on asymmetry proposed by professor Brantly Womack -that came to me through professor Myunsik Ham- and the making of constant comparisons with other countries in specific sections of the paper allowed me to elaborate an innovative analysis of trade that I consider as the main contribution of this work. I trust it may enhance knowledge of China in Colombia and vice versa as well as mutual understanding and mutual cooperation. I also hope it encourages further investigations by students and scholars not only from the two countries but also from other Latinamerican and Asian countries.