The 2nd Argentina-Chile Round of Negotiations, held with the aim of continuing to work towards a free trade agreement, concluded yesterday in the Chilean capital city with significant progress in several areas.
The Argentine delegation was headed by the Undersecretary for Economic Integration with the Americas and MERCOSUR of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Ambassador Daniel Raimondi, who was accompanied by more than 20 negotiation experts of the different public bodies of the country. On the other hand, the Chilean delegation was headed by the Director for Bilateral Economic Affairs of the General Directorate for International Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry, Pablo Urria, who was also accompanied by a large technical team representing different sectors of the government.
The delegations expressed their satisfaction with the 2nd Round of Negotiations, which took place in an honest and propitious environment. So far, some chapters of the future agreement have been concluded and progress is being positively made in the remaining chapters, such as E-commerce, Gender issues, Services, SMEs, Cooperation, among others.
The delegations also agreed on the importance of continuing to strengthen trade openness for the benefit of the economic and trade relations of the two countries. Argentina and Chile view each other as strategic partners, connected by several interests, investments and integration initiatives shared along an extended common border.
Notwithstanding the important efforts undertaken so far and aiming at the preparation of the 3rd Round of Negotiations, the two countries made several commitments to keep making progress so as to close the agreement during this year. Thus, they expect to hold the next round of negotiations by the end of June in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Background to the negotiation
Last December, in the context of the 8th Bilateral Meeting of Ministers, Argentina and Chile agreed to begin, in the first half of 2017, with the negotiations aimed at strengthening the bilateral trade relation, with a view to making progress in bilateral integration, fostering investments to strengthen value chains between the two countries, and promoting intensive market exploitation. The 1st Round was held in Buenos Aires last March.
The Chile-Argentina economic relations are currently governed by Economic Complementarity Agreement No. 35 with MERCOSUR, which has been in force since 1996 and comprises issues related to trade in goods and services. The new agreement is expected to complement the provisions of ECA No. 35, as it includes items to modernize the relations and afford legal certainty to the trade operators of both countries.
Furthermore, Chile and Argentina have an active work agenda. In fact, there is a plan on trade strengthening agreed on by the two governments, within the framework of which two Macro-rounds of Trade and Productive Integration, which favoured exports and imports businesses of Argentine provinces and Chilean regions, were held during 2016. In addition, there is constant contact at the private sector level through the Chilean-Argentine Business Council.
Press Release No. 173/17
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