Gallagher OpEd asks if China will be Latin America’s COVID-19 Savior?
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Director of the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, along with colleague Margaret Myers, Director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, published an OpEd in Americas Quarterly (March 24, 2020), highlighting that China helped shield Latin America from the worst of the 2008-09 financial crisis and asks the question whether it would do so again with COVID-19.
Titled, “Could China Be a White Knight Again for Latin America?” the OpEdit states that it is unlikely that the China-LAC trade relations will have the same buoying effect on the region’s economies as they did after the financial crisis.
More from the OpEd:
It was Chinese trade and investment that spared many LAC countries from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, with Chinese demand for the region’s raw materials nearly doubling from 2009-2011. More recently, China has acted as a sort of lender of last resort for countries in the region with limited access to global financial markets.
But while China may be of some help to LAC economies post-coronavirus crisis, the extent and form of its support will likely vary considerably from China’s post-2008 engagement. Though critical to the region’s economic well being, it is unlikely that China-LAC trade relations will have the same buoying effect on the region’s economies as they did after the financial crisis.
The full piece may be read here.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is author or co-author of six books, including most recently, The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus. Read more here.