Latin America has changed – and it is largely thanks to China. A region once known for instability has sailed through the global financial crisis with falling poverty, a booming middle class and asset markets bubbling. This is due to a spectacular expansion of commodity-based trade.

Over the past decade, fast-growing emerging countries, such as Asia, India and Africa, have shown a nearly insatiable demand for the commodities that Latin America has in abundance like Argentine soya, Brazilian iron ore, Chilean copper and Peruvian gold. The change has been rapid: in 1999, trade between Latin America and China was a mere $8bn. By 2009, according to UN figures, it had grown to $130bn – 16 times that ten years ago. By comparison, bilateral trade with the US rose by just a half over the same period.

With the first overseas trip by Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, directed at China, the world could be witnessing the birth of one of the great commercial relationships of the future. “Brazil will export a lot of the strategic commodities that China needs and China will export manufactured goods and invest in assembly plans in Brazil,” says Charles Tang, head of the Brazil-China chamber of trade and industry. In 2009, China surpassed the US as Brazil’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 12.5 per cent of the Latin American country’s exports.

Of course every commodity needs to have its packaging and terms and conditions translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese to hit those markets, just as marketing campaigns need a localisation service based around the society and culture of Latin America and China, which are extremely different. When dealing with markets with such high potential, you need to choose an accurate and reliable translation service provider. Ask SanTranslate.