While China and the United States are edging closer to a trade deal to end their protracted tariff war, the mutual distrust and geopolitical rivalry between the world’s top two economies appears to be escalating. Squabbles over China’s growing influence in Latin America and the Caribbean broke out again after Beijing last week secured Jamaica’s official endorsement of its vast “Belt and Road Initiative”.
Jamaica joined President Xi Jinping’s signature infrastructure and trade push on Thursday by signing a memorandum of understanding, making it the latest Caribbean country to join the initiative after Barbados, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
