In the past decade, trade exchange between China and Latin America grew 20-fold to reach 236.5 billion US dollars in 2015, according to the Chinese government, which has free-trade agreements with several regional countries, such as Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. 

During 2016, Korea has shown renewed efforts on the economic diplomacy front, particularly so towards Latin America. In that region, free trade agreements (FTAs) are in place with Chile, Peru, and Colombia ― the latter of which came into force July 15. Currently, multilateral negotiations are underway with countries from the Central American Integration System (SICA) since June and bilaterally with Ecuador since August 2015. 

After January 2015’s  presidential polls—otherwise known as the Rainbow Revolution—that ousted “friend of China” Rajapaksa, Beijing’s influence over Colombo was said to be gradually receding from the sandy shores of the island traditionally seen as within India’s periphery of influence.