Vol. 6 Num. 1 - GCG: Revista de Globalización, Competitividad y ...

Zhu HongboIn fact, some Latin American countries were not satisfied with these exports, or with the importof labor-intensive goods such as shoes, garments, and textiles, which could have provideda lot of jobs. This was not a trade issue, but also a political and social issue, especiallyfor votes and elections.133For China, the most important goal was to improve its export structure, producing fewerlabor-intensive goods and more high-tech manufactured goods. They should compete withJapan, the EU, and the US in Latin American markets and world high-tech markets, but notcompete with Latin American in its domestic labor-intensive market.But this process will take some time to improve the trade structure for both sides. LatinAmerica, especially South America, will continue to take advantage of the growing Chinesemarket for energy, food, and mine resources. China will take a lot of time to improve itsexport structure, not only to export more high-tech goods, but also to absorb the abundantdomestic labor force, which consisted of more than 100 million migrant workers, the sameas the population of Mexico.With economic development and more labor needs, there have not been enough laborers inChina since 2008. The salaries of workers are increasing, and some of the factories that needlarge number of labors are moving away from China. This will influence the trade betweenChina and Latin America in the future.5.4. Fourth, more investments from both sides should be the focusExcept for investments to Caribbean tax havens, investments have been very small for bothsides. The Chinese government encouraged investments from the world, which were mainlyfrom Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, the US, the EU,and other regions and countries. Latin American investment was welcomed as well.In the late 1990s, the Chinese government began to urge Chinese companies both publicand private to “go out”, that is, invest abroad and pursue internationalization. The publiccompanies usually invested in energy, mine resources, and infrastructure; and the privatecompanies focused on the manufacturing sector, such as electronics, automobile, officeequipment, and so on.Chinese companies met lots of challenges in Latin America, including the business environment,cultural difference, and political and legal stability. For example, some businessmen inLatin America paid more attention to higher taxes, less tax reduction, the high cost of waterand electricity, the legal difference between national level and government level, the difficultyof getting visas for employees, the unskilled and unstable employment force, complicatedcustoms procedures, corruptions of local officials, and local securities 33 .33. Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China Tijuana, Seminar of Chinese Businessmen and companies hosted by Consulate-GeneralTijuana, April 19, 2010 (only available in mandarin) http://tijuana.chineseconsulate.org/chn/hqhr/t683316.htmGCG GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSIA ENERO-ABRIL 2012 VOL. 6 NUM. 1 ISSN: 1988-7116pp: 115-135