HONG KONG — HONG KONG (AP) — China has been flooding Latin American markets with low-priced exports, especially autos and e-commerce goods, as its exporters adjust to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical moves.
The world’s second-largest economy has become a major trading partner for many Latin American nations, seeking access to their abundant natural resources and growing markets while expanding its influence in a region Trump views as America’s Backyard.
Chinese businesses face slow demand at home. They need new markets for their products as the country ramps up production in many industries. Exports to Latin America, a market of more than 600 million people, and other regions have climbed while exports to the U.S. fell by 20% last year.
“Latin America has a solid middle class, relatively high purchasing power and real demand,” said Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. “Those conditions make it one of the easiest places for China to offload its excess industrial production.”
The influx of made-in-China cars, clothing, electronics and home furnishings has rankled countries trying to build their own globally competitive industries. Some, such as Mexico, Chile and Brazil, have raised tariffs or taken other measures to protect their local industries.
Cheap goods from China are welcome news for many Latin American consumers, but they’re a headache for local businesses.
Chinese e-commerce platforms, led by Temu and Shein, have accelerated that trend.
“I use Temu all the time, whether to buy clothes or household items. The same things I would find in brand-name stores or shopping malls, I find on Temu at a much lower price,” said Chilean restaurant manager Lady Mogollon.
Temu averaged 114 million monthly active users in Latin America in the first half of 2025, a 165% increase year-on-year from 2024, market intelligence company Sensor Tower estimates. Shein’s monthly active users in the region grew 18%.
It’s not just online shopping.
T-shirts, jackets, pants, toys, watches and furniture and more products made in China fill the stalls of street vendors in downtown Mexico City.
Ángel Ramírez, manager of a downtown lamp shop, is struggling to compete.
“The Chinese have invaded us in terms of merchandise,” said Ramírez, sitting behind the counter of his completely deserted store.
Over the past few years the number of shops selling Chinese-made goods in Mexico City ’s downtown has more than tripled, Ramírez said, in some cases putting long-established Mexican stores out of business.
Argentina is bearing much of the brunt of rising Chinese imports, as local factories shut down and lay off workers in a manufacturing sector that employs almost a fifth of its workforce.
The volume of e-commerce imports — mostly from China — soared 237% in October from the same month a year earlier, Argentine government statistics show.
“We’re operating at historically low capacity as imports break record highs,” said Luciano Galfione, president of the nonprofit Pro Tejer Foundation, which represents textile manufactures. “We’re under indiscriminate attack.”
“The number of Chinese products arriving in Argentina, this ultra-fast fashion, is deeply worrying,” said Claudio Drescher, head of the chamber of industry and owner of the Buenos Aires-born Jazmín Chebar clothing brand. “It’s an international phenomenon but it’s now really beginning to have dramatic importance here.”
A Temu spokesperson said it has been giving Latin America local businesses “access to a low-cost, scalable online channel that was previously out of reach for many of them”, including the opening of its marketplace to domestic sellers in Mexico and Brazil in 2025.
Shein said in a statement that the company “respects the importance of local industries and fair competition.” It would not comment on broader trade policy debates.
Mexico and Brazil — Latin America’s regional auto manufacturing centers — also are under pressure from rising imports of low-priced Chinese cars.
Chinese automakers such as BYD and GWM see huge growth opportunities in Latin America. More than 80% of t