Developing countries in Africa and Latin America are advancing regional integration and South-South cooperation to achieve sustainable growth amid evolving global trade conditions, a process in which China is playing a positive role, experts said at recent events hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

At a discussion on Wednesday titled "Is it time for Africa? Trade integration on the African continent", Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of the Trade Law Centre in South Africa, and David Luke, a professor at the London School of Economics and North-West University in South Africa, said deeper trade integration and regional cooperation are essential to the continent's development and resilience.

Hartzenberg said shifts in global trade policies — particularly those of the United States — have acted as catalysts for internal progress despite challenges.

US tariff policy has been very iterative, she said, adding it has created "enormous uncertainty" and delivered "a massive shock but (also) a real wake-up call", underscoring the need to make Africa's trade and integration agenda a central priority for all African Union member states.

Luke highlighted a complementary approach, in which external preferential market access goes in tandem with integration of African markets, pointing to the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the African Continental Free Trade Area.

He also emphasized the role of investment in unlocking economic opportunities, describing it as "the other side of the coin of trade" because it supports industrialization, diversification and productive capacity-building across the continent.

Hartzenberg said countries such as China have offered cooperation opportunities, with trade facilitation serving as "an expression of regional industrial policy". Measures such as reducing trade frictions, facilitating cross-border trade and harmonizing transport and related regulations can lower business costs, improve the investment environment and enhance competitiveness, both globally and within the region, he said.

Effective from Dec 1 last year, China granted zero-tariff treatment on products from all least-developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including 33 African nations. The policy was later expanded to cover 100 percent of tariff lines for the 53 African countries that maintain diplomatic ties with China.

Reshaping connectivity

At another Peterson Institute event on Tuesday titled "Monica de Bolle on Latin America's changing role in the global economy", Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the institute, explored how infrastructure-driven trade enhancements are reshaping regional connectivity.

De Bolle spotlighted the Chinese-built Chancay Port in Peru as a landmark project. "It has become the main logistical hub for exports to China from Chile, Peru, Ecuador and everybody who's on that side of South America," she said.

Operational since late 2024, the port has demonstrated rapid and tangible effects. Trade volume exceeded $777 million in the first five months of this year, according to Peru's customs authorities. Routes such as Chancay-Shanghai have handled large cargo flows, cutting shipping times by days and reducing logistics costs by more than 20 percent.

As part of Belt and Road cooperation, the port facilitates the export of copper, agricultural products and other critical resources, strengthening regional connectivity and enhancing South America's integration into global trade networks.

De Bolle said Chinese initiatives extend to "thinking and building out the infrastructure that would be necessary to bring production from the Atlantic coast", including Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, toward "more direct" Pacific shipping routes.