At the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing, the Chinese foreign minister offered to accept more Mexican imports and encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest in Mexico.

Colombia and China have signed a cooperation document for the Latin American country to join Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative.

At a Beijing forum this week, China has cast itself as defender of the multilateral order and backer of the Global South, with Xi pledging $9.2 billion in credit toward development.

The trade war has heightened China’s need to develop gateways to import the continent’s soybeans, corn and other foodstuffs that are the only viable alternative supply to U.S. exports.

China and Colombia have signed a joint cooperation plan on the Belt and Road Initiative, state media said on Wednesday after their leaders met in Beijing. Burgeoning commerce in recent years has helped grow Beijing's influence in Latin America and the Caribbean,

China is now Latin America's second-largest trading partner, and the region has become the second-largest destination for Chinese investment abroad. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, more than 200 infrastructure projects have been implemented across Latin America and the Caribbean, creating more than 1 million jobs.

The United States should look more generously at Latin America and South America, Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Monday, arguing that the world's largest economy has "much to gain" from greater industrial development across the continent.

Tariffs aren’t the only battleground to keep an eye on in the trade war between the US and China. Access to Wall Street could be used as a lever in the negotiations, leaving almost 300 Chinese companies listed in the US at risk of being removed from American stock exchanges.