South American nations move to consolidate bicoastal trade corridor

Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay have agreed to create a working group to consolidate a bicoastal trade corridor designed to boost commerce, local media reported Friday.

The four countries reached the agreement on the proposed route, linking Brazil's south Atlantic coast with Pacific coast ports in northern Chile, during the first meeting of a Working Group on Bicoastal Corridors held on Thursday.

The group, composed of 30 government officials and representatives from the private sector, aims to speed up the processing of paperwork.

The corridor is expected to begin operating in 2018, though some 500 km of roadway have yet to be paved, and a bridge needs to be built over the Paraguay River.

At the meeting, Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz affirmed that Chile's northern ports are at the disposal of other South American nations, as part of regional integration.

Paraguay, along with provinces in northern Argentina and Brazil's western states, mainly exports goods via Atlantic ports that are already overburdened with traffic.

As they seek to boost exports to China and other Asian markets, these regions need access to Chile's better-situated ports, and to get there, they need to improve highway or railway infrastructure through the region's Andes mountain range. Endi