Pablo Urria, DIRECON director of Bilateral Economic Affairs and leader of the Chilean team. (Photo: Direcon)
CHILE
Tuesday, July 28, 2015, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
After a meeting of the Free Trade Commission (FTC), representatives of Chile and South Korea agreed in Santiago to deepen the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that the two sides signed over a decade ago.
"On this opportunity, we have advanced in the definition of the steps and stages that will lead us to deepen the trade agreement that has already been effective for 11 years," stated Pablo Urria, DIRECON director of Bilateral Economic Affairs and leader of the Chilean team.
"After the visit of the president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, last April in Chile, we believe it is a good time to advance in updating the agreement," he added.
The Korean delegation was led by Cheong Seungil, general director of Implementation of Trade Agreements of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy of Korea.
"For Chile there are challenges," Urria stressed. "Within them, what is highlighted is the opening for domestic products that today do not have tariff preferences in South Korea, like those in the 'Doha Development Agenda (DDA)' category, a basket of 370 goods, mostly having agribusiness character, which are of great interest for our export sector."
The bilateral FTA, which in effect turned 11 years last April, marked a milestone as the first free trade pact signed between a Latin American country and an Asian one, Direcon recalled in a statement.
The commercial exchange between the two countries recorded a rise of 2 per cent in 2014, totalling USD 7,079 million.
Exports to South Korea totalled USD 4,772 million while Chilean imports amounted to USD 2,308 million.
The shipments of fishery, agricultural and forestry products from Chile rose 17 per cent and salmon exports, in particular, grew by 56 per cent.