Interview: Chilean minister calls for closer trade ties with China

Chile and China maintain "very close" ties thanks to a 10-year free trade agreement (FTA), Chilean Agriculture Minister Carlos Furche said, calling for stronger trade relations.

Trade ties between the two countries have grown four-fold in the past decade, Furche told Xinhua in a recent interview on the sidelines of a UN Food and Agriculture Organization regional conference.

China is now the third largest export market for Chilean food products, whereas prior to the FTA such trade was "irrelevant and marginal," Furche said.

"We hope the work we are doing continues to be fruitful, so that China can over the next five or 10 years become our No. 1 or No. 2 export market for foodstuff," he said.

Chile exports a wide variety of agricultural goods, mainly fruit and vegetables, wine, dairy, poultry, pork and beef. As the world's second largest producer of salmon and trout, Chile also exports a substantial amount of fish and seafood.

"I think we have an excellent outlook, in terms of trade ties with Asia in general, but with China in particular," Furche said.

Free-trade talks between China and Chile went smoothly and swiftly as they began in November 2004, at a leaders' summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in the Chilean capital of Santiago, and concluded in October 2005.

Since the FTA went into effect on Oct. 1, 2006, China has become a leading trade partner, receiving up to 20 percent of Chile's total exports in 2010.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, trade between China and Chile increased from 7.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, the year prior to the agreement, to 30.8 billion dollars in 2014.

As the FTA turns 10 this year, Chile hopes to expand not just its food trade with the Asian country but also welcome more Chinese tourists. Endi