This research looks at Latin America and the Caribbean exports trajectory in the United States market

in the almost two decades that followed China's accession to the WTO and compares it with that

followed by China and other regions. The analysis exploits product-level United States imports data

collected from the United States Census Bureau. The dataset contains information on more than 30.000

products per year for almost 200 countries.

The study finds that most Latin American countries lost market share between 2002 and 2018,

with Mexico's notable exception, which increased 17 percentage points. In contrast, Asia increased its

participation in the United States imports market and is now the second-largest exporter region, after

the OECD that still dominates the United States import market in almost every sector. Overall, China

and Mexico are the countries that gained the most market share. Moreover, Latin American countries'

exports are not very similar to China's exports to the United States, indicating that they may not be

directly competing in this market. In terms of product qualities, the comparison between Latin America

and China reveals that Latin America specializes in high-value segments more than China does.