The Southern Axis: How Africa and Latin America Are Reshaping Global Trade

By Danilo Desiderio

In Yaoundé, Cameroon, away from the formal proceedings of the World Trade Organization’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), a subtle yet consequential realignment was taking shape. Africa and Latin America – long cast as footnotes in the grand narrative of global commerce – are emerging as forces capable of redrawing trade patterns for decades to come.

This is not wishful thinking. The debates at MC14 reflected a growing recognition that the Global South is no longer a passive spectator in international trade.

Both regions are asserting themselves with increasing confidence, influencing production, attracting investment, and redirecting trade flows. Taken together, their economic complementarities, cultural affinities, and shared commercial instincts reveal a vast reservoir of untapped opportunity – one that could fundamentally alter the global economic landscape.

The numbers lend credibility to this ambition. According to the WTO, South–South trade has risen from roughly 10 percent of global commerce in the mid-1990s to around 25 percent today. With nearly 90 countries, more than 2 billion people, and a combined GDP exceeding US$10 trillion, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean possess the critical mass to graduate from distant outposts to central nodes in global commerce.

An Underdeveloped Partnership

Yet the trade relationship between these two regions remains remarkably thin. Exports from the 33 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to Africa account for just 0.3 percent of global trade – and flows in the opposite direction are even smaller. Latin American shipments consist largely of processed agri-food products and light manufactures, dominated by Brazil, while African exports lean heavily toward raw materials and minimally processed agricultural goods.

That imbalance is precisely where the opportunity lies: in building more diversified, mutually beneficial trade relationships that move both regions up the value chain.

Political momentum is building. Several Latin American governments are deepening ties with African partners, while initiatives aimed at strengthening interregional connectivity are multiplying. New maritime routes – including a shipping pact signed by the foreign ministers of Ghana and Colombia – signal a determined push to knit the two regions together through commerce.

The Connectivity Problem

Research published under the title Connecting the Souths: Identifying Strategic Sectors for Africa–Latin America Trade, Industrial and Value Chain Cooperation, conducted jointly with Sebastian Galindo Cantor of the Latin–Africa Chamber of Commerce, identifies opportunities for collaboration among business communities, investors, and industrial actors in both regions.

Crucially, it also addresses a critical blind spot in conventional analyses of Africa–Latin America trade: connectivity.

Despite their economic potential, the two continents remain poorly linked. Direct shipping routes are scarce, air networks are limited, and digital infrastructure is fragmented.

Trade is being held back not by geographic distance but by transport and digital links that are weak, expensive, and unreliable. In economic terms, distance is measured not in miles but in the strength – or fragility – of the connections that bind one region to another. Even the most promising partnerships cannot scale without efficient logistics, reliable transport corridors, and integrated digital systems.

And yet the underlying similarities are abundant. Economic life across Africa and Latin America is relational, adaptive, and deeply rooted in informal networks that coexist alongside formal markets.

Commercial exchanges are shaped as much by trust, cultural affinity, and shared practices as by formal contracts. These affinities provide a solid foundation for structured economic cooperation – if the infrastructure to support it can be put in place.

Where the Opportunities Lie

Sectoral opportunities for collaboration are substantial across four domains. Agri-food systems offer pathways to build resilient value chains that enhance food security and diversify exports, shifting from raw commodities toward higher-value processed goods.

Energy resources – including renewables and bioenergy – present opportunities for joint industrialization and greater energy self-reliance. Light manufacturing, encompassing textiles, apparel, and assembly-based industries, can support industrial upgrading and job creation.

And digital services and logistics platforms can enable firms to improve productivity, expand market access, and integrate into broader South–South value chains. With targeted policies and cross-regional partnerships, these strengths can be converted into sustained economic cooperation.

This is why the proposals emerging from MC14 matter so much. New maritime corridors, expanded air networks, and integrated digital platforms are not mere infrastructure upgrades; they are the future arteries along which South–South commerce will accelerate.

Yet infrastructure alone is insufficient. To deliver meaningful impact, these corridors must be anchored in collaborative projects that link production systems across both regions.

By aligning value chains in agriculture, agro-processing, energy, and light manufacturing, countries on both continents can convert latent synergies into tangible industrial cooperation.

A Paradigm Shift in the Making

For decades, Africa and Latin America have occupied strikingly similar positions in the global economy: as commodity exporters and peripheral actors in value chains shaped by others, dependent on external markets for growth. That paradigm is now shifting as South–South linkages deepen and diversify.

Connectivity, in this sense, becomes a strategy for reorganizing production across continents. Fragmented trade flows can evolve into integrated, mutually reinforcing economic ecosystems.

If successfully implemented, these initiatives could do far more than expand trade volumes – they could catalyze entirely new value chains defined by Southern priorities rather than Northern demand.

Realizing this potential requires three fundamental shifts.

First, infrastructure must be treated as foundational rather than aspirational: ports, shipping lines, air routes, and digital platforms are preconditions for trade, not optional add-ons.

Second, trade agreements and regulatory harmonization matter, but policy must also engage the relational fabric of these economies – by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, leveraging diaspora networks, and building trust across business communities.

Third, connectivity gaps – physical, digital, and relational – must be recognized as decisive constraints that determine whether economic potential is ever realized.

The implications extend well beyond bilateral trade. Closing connectivity gaps and fostering coordinated development across agri-food, energy, manufacturing, and digital sectors can create new industrial clusters and regional value chains, reducing dependency on traditional Northern markets, strengthening economic resilience, spurring innovation, and generating employment at scale.

Enhanced economic integration would also amplify Africa and Latin America’s collective voice in global trade governance, allowing both regions to negotiate from positions of strength and to shape international rules in line with their own priorities.

South–South cooperation is no longer a theoretical aspiration – it is a historic opportunity. By combining infrastructure development, value chain integration, and strategic collaboration, Africa and Latin America can do more than expand trade. They can redefine the architecture of global commerce itself, placing Southern-led priorities at the heart of the 21st-century economic order.

Danilo Desiderio serves as the CEO of Desiderio Consultants Ltd in Nairobi, Kenya, specializing in African customs, trade, and transport policies. He is a customs and trade expert at the World Bank and a senior associate to the Horn Economic and Social Policy Institute (HESPI).