My understanding, and I'm not a complete expert on the export flows back and forth during the last number of years, is that there was still an increase of sorts until the late 1990s, when Latin America went through a very bad economic crisis. When you start to see the end of the 1990s, you will see a drop-off in the trade back and forth with Latin America, at least during those years.
On February 8th, 2007. See this statement in context.