The US insists on promoting the semiconductor industry in Latin America via APEP

The United States seeks to boost the industry of semiconductors in Latin America and announced on Wednesday that, through an alliance with 11 countries, it will channel investments for projects in this sector.

During a day of meetings of foreign ministers of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity (APEP), a Washington initiative in which countries such as Colombia, Panama and Mexico participate, the Biden administration announced several programs to boost the production of these materials on the continent.

Semiconductors are a type of material essential for the manufacture of most electronic products used in everyday life: from computers to cell phones, tablets or televisions.

For Washington, this project will help exploit the “real opportunity” that exists in the region to create a”Near-shoring of semiconductor industries seeking locations closer to the US market“, said José Fernández, head of economic development at the State Department, at a press conference.

To this end, the United States announced an initiative in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to finance semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging projects in Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica.

Details of the exact amount of funding that will be allocated to this project are not yet known, but the United States hopes that this initiative will expand to more countries in the region and continue until 2026.

In turn, with the intention of bringing together companies, workers and officials related to the semiconductor industry, the United States and Mexico will lead a ministerial meeting in Mexico City on September 5 and 6, the State Department detailed in a statement.

APEP was launched by the Biden administration in 2022 to address economic and social issues in the region.

The 12 countries that are part of it, in addition to the United States, are: Barbados, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, PeruDominican Republic and Uruguay.

In addition to projects for the semiconductor industry, the United States announced that it will allocate approximately US$30 million to international development projects in Latin American and Caribbean countries, with the support of the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IDB Invest).

Curbing human mobility on the continent

The foreign ministerial meeting in Washington was hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with the foreign ministers and also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico.

The common thread in these meetings was the collaboration of these governments with the United States to stop the movement of people on their way to the southern border of the North American country.

In a meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, Blinken thanked Mexico for its “great efforts“to reduce the number of people arriving at their common border and pointed to migration control as a priority in the relationship between the two countries.

Along the same lines, during a meeting with Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha, the U.S. diplomat emphasized the agreement signed between the two countries on July 1 to stop the passage of people through Darién, a jungle that forms a natural border between Colombia and Panama and which is crossed by hundreds of people every day on their way to North America.

The first APEC summit was held in November 2023 when representatives from the United States, Canada and ten Latin American countries agreed that the forum would meet every two years and that there would also be three annual meetings at the ministerial level: Foreign Affairs, Trade and Finance.