Exports of goods from Latin America and the Caribbean surged 19.5% year-on-year during the first half of 2026, outstripping the 14.5% rise in global trade, according to the Trade and Integration Monitor 2026 published by the Inter-American Development Bank in November 2026. The robust performance was fueled by elevated oil and commodity prices combined with demand for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence. The IDB report argues that this trade resilience creates a window for the region to draw in more foreign investment.
Mexico drove regional expansion with exports climbing 24.6%, powered by sales of AI infrastructure equipment to the United States. The Caribbean recorded 19.1% growth, concentrated in Guyana and Suriname, while South America saw a 16.5% increase. Both the Caribbean and South American gains were pushed higher by rising prices for mining and energy products, especially oil. The region's share of U.S. imports—the primary destination for export growth—hit a record 22.1% in the first half of 2026, even as American purchases from the rest of the world fell. The region also won back market share in Europe during the same period.
Paolo Giordano, Principal Economist in the IDB's Productivity, Trade, and Innovation Sector, said "The trade resilience of Latin America and the Caribbean is an opportunity to attract more investment." He added that to capitalize on this opening, "the region can pair its international trade and investment commitments with complementary domestic regulatory frameworks that give investors certainty." The report notes that although Latin America and the Caribbean still draws more foreign direct investment relative to economic size than any other region, it pulled in 4.5% less FDI in 2023–2025 compared to 2012–2014, with its portion of global FDI stock dropping from 7.1% to 6.0%. The Monitor finds that double taxation treaties, bilateral investment treaties, and trade agreements with investment chapters are linked to a higher probability of investment ties between nations.
According to the report, the provisional application of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, the updating of other trade deals, and the restructuring of global value chains driven by artificial intelligence and the energy transition together open a significant opportunity window for Latin America and the Caribbean. The report's analysis attributes the strong first-half performance mainly to higher export volumes, with price increases providing additional lift despite what it describes as a challenging global environment. The Monitor argues that the region's external trade agenda needs to be accompanied by parallel reforms to national regulatory frameworks and investment in public goods that reduce the costs private companies face when entering international markets. If the region can strengthen its regulatory architecture while leveraging existing trade and investment commitments, it stands to convert recent trade gains into sustained investment inflows and deeper integration into evolving global supply chains.