Container Management featured AMI’s Diego Rodriguez Paez in a detailed analysis of why intra-regional trade in Latin America remains below 23% and what trade agreements, ports, and shifting alliances could change that.
Latin America’s intra-regional trade remains stuck below 23% of total imports and exports — less than half of Southeast Asia’s 40% — despite a region rich in complementary economies and growing infrastructure investment. The feature examines the structural forces holding that figure back, from competing commodity export models to shifting political alliances within the Pacific Alliance, and asks whether US tariff pressure might paradoxically accelerate intra-regional integration. The EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and a new Mercosur-EFTA free trade deal add further variables to the equation. Meanwhile, China’s Chancay Port in Peru and Panama’s ambitions as a regional logistics hub are already beginning to redraw trade flow calculations across the Americas.
Diego Rodriguez Paez, of Americas Market Intelligence (AMI), contributed detailed analysis of the opportunities and obstacles ahead for the October 2025 Latin America issue of Container Management magazine.
Read the full feature in Container Management: Intra-Americas trade
