The United States is applying relentless pressure on Uruguay to sever its trade ties with China, Uruguay's Economy Minister Gabriel Oddone told business leaders at a private meeting last week, a disclosure that exposes competing demands Washington and Beijing are placing on the small South American nation.

Oddone, speaking to more than twenty representatives of the Confederation of Business Chambers (CCE) on March 24, described the pressure from Washington as "unimaginable" and "unsustainable," according to weekly newspaper Búsqueda. He warned that if Uruguay did not comply, its commercial relationship with the Trump administration "will not improve and could get worse."

The remarks come just weeks after President Yamandú Orsi travelled to Beijing at the head of a 150-strong delegation and signed more than a dozen cooperation agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping, covering trade, investment, agriculture, science and infrastructure. China has been Uruguay's largest trading partner for more than a decade, absorbing roughly a quarter of its exports; Uruguayan shipments to China totalled $3.5bn last year, up nearly 12% year on year.

Beef, soybeans and cellulose exports flow primarily to China, which has been Uruguay's single largest trading partner for more than 14 years and absorbs roughly 26% of its exports. The revelation comes as the economy is already under strain: growth came in at 1.8% last year, a full percentage point below official projections, and forecasters have since trimmed their 2026 outlook to 1.6%.

Oddone, who was joined at the gathering by Planning and Budget Office director Rodrigo Arim, acknowledged having "little room to manoeuvre" owing to inherited fiscal constraints and divisions within the governing coalition over reform priorities, attendees told Búsqueda. He asked business leaders to see the "glass half full," noting that the economy was growing despite what he described as a "very complex" geopolitical environment.

The minister ruled out currency depreciation as a path to competitiveness, saying gains would instead come through microeconomic reforms to cut foreign trade costs. He also pointed to measures recently announced to support commerce along the border with Argentina.

Uruguay has sought to navigate the US-China rivalry without foreclosing either relationship. On the security front, Orsi said on March 12 he found it "odd" that Uruguay had not been invited to Trump's Shield of the Americas summit, a gathering of twelve regional leaders aligned with the US president to coordinate counter-narcotics strategies held in Florida earlier this month. Orsi signalled willingness to engage when called upon, stating "of course, when we are invited for specific problems, we will be there,” while indicating Montevideo would pursue the same agenda through multilateral channels including CELAC, of which Uruguay is set to assume the rotating presidency.

Oddone's candid assessment was echoed by governing coalition Senator Daniel Caggiani of the leftist Broad Front, who said in an interview published on March 28 that Uruguay was facing mounting external pressure in a global environment where "trade is ideologised and value chains are regionalised."

Caggiani said Uruguay retained room to chart its own course, citing the country's current presidencies of the Group of 77 plus China, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and soon Mercosur. He denounced President Donald Trump's "Shield of the Americas" initiative as an attempt to impose Washington's agenda on the region and a potential vehicle for ceding sovereignty through joint operations with US Southern Command, as the White House seeks to reassert dominance on the Western Hemisphere in the face of China's growing presence through infrastructure development programmes such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

The senator also noted, without elaborating, that Uruguay had already faced US punishment after joining Brazil, Mexico and Chile in opposing what he characterised as “illegal intervention” in Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro. "Intervention is a limit for Uruguay. It's a red line for us," he said.