Lima. Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the Peruvian megaport Chancay on Thursday as a new maritime corridor between Asia and Latin America, in one of Beijing’s most ambitious bets in the region, and signed the expansion of a free trade agreement with Peru .
Xi, who arrived in Lima for the APEC summit in a diplomatic offensive in Latin America, stated during a meeting with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte that the launch of the megaport is a “successful” sign of cooperation with the Peruvian government under China’s global Belt and Road plan.
““China is willing to work with the Peruvian side to take the Chancay project as a starting point to forge a new marine land corridor between China and Latin America and connect the great Inca trail and the 21st century maritime silk route,” he highlighted. Xi at the Government Palace in Lima, about the first port financed by China in South America.
The Chinese president and Boluarte virtually inaugurated the Chancay megaport, located 80 kilometers north of the capital, from the Government Palace of Lima.
Boluarte, who earlier said that the port will “revolutionize” trade in Asia-Pacific, considered that Chancay will become a “world-class” logistics center.
Signing of agreements
Both presidents also witnessed the signing of several bilateral cooperation agreements and a protocol for optimizing a Free Trade Agreement, in force since 2009, and which is expected to give a new leap to trade between the two countries.
The start of the megaport will occur amid concerns about future tariffs from a White House that will be led since January by Republican Donald Trump, who will assume the presidency for the second time in less than a decade.
Investment for 1,300 million dollars
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, also arrived in Lima to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). Xi and Biden are expected to meet on Saturday in Lima, before they leave for Brazil for the Group of 20 major economies (G20) summit.
The megaport, built by China’s Cosco Shipping Ports, has already attracted $1.3 billion in Chinese investment and is expected to attract billions more in the near future in a bid to become a major inter-Asia shipping hub. and South America.
Mario Ocharán, Peruvian director of the Chancay Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters that the first ship would set sail the week of November 18, transporting Peruvian fruit to China.
Connections and second phase
The real goal of the megaport, according to Ocharán, was access to Brazil, where a new railway line will connect the port with Brazilian supplies. “The Koreans and the Chinese have expressed interest in building the railway.”
The Chancay megaport expects a second phase of expansion in the coming years with additional investment of two thousand 300 million dollars, according to the construction company.
“It is expected that in approximately four years the second phase of the project could begin to be developed,” the corporate affairs manager of Cosco Shipping Chancay Peru, Mario de las Casas, told Reuters by telephone.
Economic benefits
Xi, in an article published on Thursday by the official newspaper The Peruvianexplained that the port would generate annual income of four thousand 500 million dollars, more than eight thousand jobs and would reduce logistics costs on the Peru and China route by 20 percent.
The Chinese president arrived in Lima accompanied by more than 100 executives from Chinese companies, including heads of companies with the largest investments in Peru, including Cosco Shipping and the mining company Chinalco, owner of the Toromocho copper mine.
Subject needs
China’s presence in the region has taken a radical turn in recent decades and surpassed the United States in trade in South and Central America during the previous Trump administration, despite his administration periodically warning the region about the dangers of getting too close to Beijing.
Under President Biden, the gap has widened, despite Washington’s efforts to reverse it.
Part of the change is pragmatic. Fast-growing China needs Andean copper and lithium from South America, along with corn and soybeans from the plains of Argentina and Brazil.
An example of its greater role in the region is Peru, the world’s third largest producer of copper. A decade ago, the country traded little more with the United States than with China. China now has a lead of more than $10 billion in bilateral trade, according to recent annual data.
Geopolitical competition
Port infrastructure has raised concerns in the United States, which has had Latin America relegated for decades amid the rise of the Asian country in the region.
Gen. Laura Richardson, former head of the U.S. Southern Command, warned earlier this month before she retired that Chancay could be used by the Chinese military’s navy and for intelligence gathering.
The Chinese newspaper Global Times wrote in an editorial published on Monday that the port was a “bridge for practical cooperation between China and Latin America and is in no way a tool for geopolitical competition,” calling US accusations of possible use “smears.” port military.
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