The Interoceanica Highway to the Pacific Ocean is said to turn Brazil from "America's backyard" to a major supplier of natural resources bound for China.
New highways stretching across South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans will consolidate Brazil’s role as the continent’s leader and give it an alternative export outlet to Asia.
The roads won’t redraw global trade patterns the way the Panama Canal did, but their impact could be considerable.
Peru says the highways — which will eventually provide direct links to five ports on its Pacific coast — will help it become a strategic trade route between two of the world’s largest emerging markets: Brazil and China.
In the last five years, Peru and Chile have signed free-trade pacts with China, and its appetite for their minerals has made it their biggest trade partner alongside the United States.