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Interview: Chile fully supportive of APEC free trade agreement: senior diplomat

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chile is fully supportive of reaching a free trade agreement within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and maintains close communication with China to this effect, a senior Chilean diplomat has said.

Communication with China "will only grow stronger due to efforts to reach an APEC Free Trade Agreement (FTA)," Andres Rebolledo, director general of economic relations at the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a recent interview with Xinhua, ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in the Philippines from Nov. 18 to 19.

The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will see the results released by the feasibility study into an APEC FTA launched during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing in 2014.

In this sense, Rebolledo said that Chile plays a huge role in bridging Latin America with China due to its geo-economic context and plenty of multilateral agreements.

Forty percent of Chilean exports go to Asia, accounting for around 13 percent of the country's GDP.

According to the senior diplomat, Chile participates in economic mechanisms, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as they benefit its political and commercial strategies.

Chile approved the initiative in Beijing in 2014 and supported the feasibility study as a prelude to negotiations among the 21 APEC member economies.

Beyond APEC, "China is a fundamental and strategic partner to Chile and is our main receiver of exports. We have had an FTA for a decade, with zero tariffs for all products," said Rebolledo.

The Chile Week in China, held in August in honor of 45 years of their diplomatic relations, was a piece of evidence of how this relationship has grown.

Speaking on the need for an APEC FTA, Rebolledo explained that "in the last three years, international trade has grown above the rate of the global economy but these rates are now stabilizing and growing at the same rate."

"This shows how international trade was the engine of global growth but is no longer. This makes it all the more urgent to take steps to reinvigorate global growth, as is being done through APEC," he said.

In his mind, an APEC FTA would "be a dream coming true for Chile which has fought for it for a long time".

He said that Chile already has FTAs with 15 other APEC members and is negotiating two more with Indonesia and the Philippines. Endi