China became Brazil’s most important trading partner in 2009. For the South American country, this new situation implies lower levels of economic dependency on the USA. But does this new situation automatically translate into a more equitable axis of South-South relations? And, to what extent can Sino- Brazilian trade be reconciled with the vision of a global, low-carbon bioeconomy? This article addresses these questions by means of a qualitative analysis of the trade relations between China and Brazil over the period 2000-2018. The Sino-Brazilian case is interpreted as an important axis of South-South relations in the context of the emerging bioeconomy. The paper shows that, despite greening policies on both sides, trade relations between the two countries are by no means developing in the direction of a low-carbon transition. Although Sino-Brazilian trade is treated bilaterally as an expression of South-South cooperation, its constitutive elements and dynamics do not break with classical centre-periphery hierarchies. Instead, the article highlights the construction of new inequalities, with much relevance for the bioeconomy in the making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]