ABSTRACT
What does the vertiginous economic emergence of China mean for development prospects in the countries of Central America (El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama)? Has rapid growth in China been a bane or boon for these Central American countries? Were they harder hit by the 2008-09 economic downturn in the United States than their neighbors in South America, whose China trade has been much more vigorous? What are the longer-term implications of Central America’s economic relationship with China versus the United States? This chapter explores these questions by analyzing Central America’s trade relations with China, contrasting those relations with Central America’s trade with the United States.2
