L. America seeks trade improvements with China

Latin America seeks more involvement of the manufacturing sector and small and medium enterprises in the bilateral trade with China, rather than just exporting raw materials to China, senior officials said on Thursday.

"We hope that Latin American exports to China do not center on a few kinds of raw materials. We hope to see a stronger connection of raw materials with manufacturing as well as with services," said Osvaldo Rosales, director of the Division of Commercial Integration of the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean countries, at the 6th China-LAC Business Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

"We hope that small and medium enterprises will engage, directly and indirectly, in trade with China, which will improve the trade quality, increase employment and narrow incomes gaps in Latin American nations," Rosales said.

"The final goal is to enhance innovation, especially technology innovation, for a sustainable development," he added.

China surpassed the European Union in 2011 to become the largest goods supplier of Latin America and it will be "an important export destination for Latin America in the next two or three years", according to Rosales.