Washington's leaves out that it offers tariffs and threats where China offers ports and purchases; that it used tariffs against Brazil over the trial of a political ally, which is the interference it accuses others of; and that it keeps its own market closed to much of what the region grows.
Beijing's leaves out that it buys raw materials and sells manufactures, the pattern Latin America spent a century trying to escape, and that its cheap goods have closed factories from Mexico to Brazil; that its oil-backed loans to Venezuela and Ecuador were secret and costly; and that its fishing fleets strip the waters off South America's Pacific coast.
Brussels's leaves out that it took a quarter of a century to sign, that its parliament then sent the agreement to court, and that within months it had shut out the product Mercosur most wanted to sell.
The Latin American governments' leaves out that they have no common position: Argentina aligns with Washington, Brazil with the BRICS, Mexico with whoever will let it; and that after twenty years of selling to everyone they export much the same unprocessed goods as before.
