Argentina’s exports to China down 15% year-on-year in first half of 2025

According to the latest report from the INDEC national statistics bureau, Argentina's trade with China recorded the highest negative balance in the first half of the year: US$5.227 billion. 

The Asian giant remains Argentina's second largest trading partner, but the difference between exports and imports is considerable: while the former account for 22.5 percent of total exports, the latter account for 7.7 percent of all imports.

During the same period, according to the official report, "sales to that country reached US$3.07 billion, a decrease of 15 percent (down US$541 million) compared to the same period in 2024. Imports totalled US$8.297 billion and increased by US$3.672 billion (79.4 percent) from the same period of the previous year.

The latest monthly data available is for June 2025, which also recorded a sharp decline compared to the same month last year: exports fell by 17.8 percent and imports, on the contrary, increased by 92.2 percent. Of total monthly trade (US$2.159 billion), 60 percent were imports, compared to 39 percent of the total in June 2024.

“We have products that they need, but there is a rather unbalanced ‘complementarity’ from the point of view of added value,” Sergio Spadone, president of the Cámara Argentino-China (Argentine-Chinese Chamber of Commerce), explained to Perfil.

According to the Observatorio de Complejidad Económica (OEC), China's main exports to Argentina, in addition to capital goods, are telephones and computers. Chinese imports from Argentina are concentrated on products such as frozen beef, carbonates and molluscs. Manufactured goods and machinery are mainly imported from China, Spadone added: “Products that are increasingly technological and sophisticated,” he explained.

In June, 59.4 percent of Argentine exports to China were primary products and 32 percent were manufactured goods of agricultural origin. Industrial manufactured goods accounted for only 5.1 percent of total exports, and fuel and energy accounted for 3.5 percent.

“The imbalance also has to do with a lack of planning,” argues Spadone. He observed that there is no professional office within Argentina’s government that studies the relationship with China on an ongoing basis. 

“In China, they are very determined and very clear when it comes to their growth and development objectives and their relationship with the world and with Latin America. The proof is that every ambassador who comes to Latin America speaks Spanish or Portuguese, depending on the country they are visiting, and they prepare very well for that mission. They are professionals, they are career diplomats,” said Spadone.

In contrast, he explained, “on the Argentine side, there has never been an office that cuts across governments and works on behalf of the local economy, foreign exchange earnings, and industrial development.”

Faced with this, he added, two things happen: other countries that are perhaps less competitive win the market, and entrepreneurs develop their own ‘survival’ strategies.

“Entrepreneurs prepare themselves, they have formed partnerships, entrepreneurs are attentive to these things because it is a survival instinct for an entrepreneur. But at the government level, that does not happen, which is a shame,” said Spadone.

According to the latest data available from the Chilean Central Bank's foreign trade monitor, so far in 2025, Chile has exported goods worth a total of US$19.453 billion to China, its main trading partner. It imported US$11.912 billion, resulting in a trade surplus. 

“Chile exports US$50 billion worth of mining products, mainly copper. We have the same mountains, the same resources, we have to develop them,” noted Spadone.

Among the opportunities that, according to Spadone, Argentines are missing out on in a Chinese market that continues to expand is wine. Consumption has become more widespread and buyers are increasingly concerned about product traceability and safety. 

"Chile sells twenty times more wine than we do in dollars. And Australia almost 50 times more. We still have a long way to go. Private initiative has to dare to go to China and conquer that market, which is complex, very large and very competitive," argued the expert.

Another missed opportunity is tourism services, he added. "The inbound tourism sector in Argentina has never been accompanied by government policies that favour the entry of Chinese tourists into the country. Now it has been made easier, but only in part, for Chinese citizens who have a US visa.”

“Chinese tourists spend the most cash in the world, twice as much as European tourists,” he observed.

On the role of politics – and in relation to President Javier Milei's previously controversial statements about China – Spadone confessed that Argentina's “pendulum” behaviour does not help. 

“Argentina, in its current situation, has to be smart, know how to negotiate with everyone and defend its position. The smart position would be to favour Argentine products and exports,” he summarised.