The canal now handles some 15 percent of goods entering or leaving the United States, including 40 percent of grain exports. Statistics from the Panama Canal's Web site point to substantially greater Asian dependence on the canal than US dependence. Without major improvements, the canal will become obsolete within a decade. Moreover, China's attempts to plant a larger economic and trade footprint in the region also appear half-hearted. Money invested thus far in nourishing more beneficial trade relationships has been miniscule.
China also has little to offer on trade.
And, in some areas, Chinese commodities would directly compete with domestic production in many Latin American countries. Clearly, Beijing must expand exponentially what it can offer or it will never be able to compete with the United States, which accounts for half of all imports and exports in the region, the European Union's trade expansion or even Taiwan. Taiwan already has invested heavily in Paraguay, as well as in portions of Central America. China's strategy to expand its influence in Latin America barely can be described as a strategy. Its efforts to nurture new security and trade alliances have been an inch deep and a mile wide.