Talking Points:  This is partly due to China’s targeted neo-mercantilist trading strategy, employing a state-managed, non-market trade regime, coupled with Chinese demand for Latin American agricultural products and minerals to fuel it industries. It is partly due to the decline in US economic strength in comparison with China and other industrial powers, a trend that dates back decades. Also, the US has failed to engage in aggressive economic diplomacy, which would enable it to compete on more even terms with China and other major trading countries for market share and foreign direct investment opportunities.