Brazil`s exports to Argentina increased after the agreement was signed in 1991, but declined shortly after Argentina`s economic collapse in 2001. Instead, the main driver of trade for Brazil has been China`s rapid rise as a production power plant. In 2009, it became Brazil`s largest trading partner and the largest commodity market, as shown in the chart below. According to UN data, it continues to buy more raw materials from Brazil than from any other country. All this without a trade agreement between the two and even with a few commercial cracks. When the boom in the trade deal began in the early 90s, the size of Latin American manufacturing continued to shrink. It is not only because of the trade agreements – the rise of China that has been the main driver of this change, as it is buying up raw materials to fuel its rise and flood the world market with cheap producers – but they have played a role. World Bank data shows a downward trend in the region`s manufacturing industry, as a percentage of GDP, to just 13.72 percent in 2016, up from an average of 24.5 percent in 1989. .

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