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ArabicChina-Chile FTA Upgrading Negotiations Concluded, Agreement Signed
China-Chile Free Trade Agreement
On November 11, under the
witness of President Xi Jinping and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet,
Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan and Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Heraldo
Munoz, on behalf of respective governments, officially signed the document about
the achievements in the China-Chile FTA Upgrading Negotiations in Da Nang,
Vietnam-the Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China
and the Government of the Republic of Chile on Revising China-Chile Free Trade
Agreement and Supplementary Agreement on Trade in Services of the Free Trade
Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement).
In November 2016, during
President Xi Jinping's state visit to Chile, both sides signed the memorandum
of understanding and officially launched the FTA Upgrading Negotiations in
order to further improve bilateral trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.
After three rounds of negotiations, both sides reached complete agreements on
the Agreement within less than a year. The Agreement is the first FTA upgrading
agreement China has signed since the successful conclusion of the 19th CPC
National Congress. The signing of the Agreement fully embodies" promoting
the construction of Free Trade Areas and an open world economy" put
forward at the 19th CPC National Congress and "speeding up the
implementation of the FTA strategy based on the periphery and forming the
high-standard FTA networks that are open to the whole world" put forward
at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC.
The Agreement is China's
second FTA upgrading agreement after the upgraded China-ASEAN FTA as well as
China's first FTA upgrading agreement with a Latin American country. It will
make the China-Chile FTA the one with the highest open level of trade in goods
so far. The Agreement covers areas such as trade in goods, trade in services,
economic and technological cooperation, e-commerce, environment, competition
and government procurement. It has enriched, improved, supplemented and
promoted the original agreement and reflected the two countries' common will
and realistic demand for deepening the trade and economic cooperation. The
signing of the Agreement will provide new assistance to the two countries'
mutually beneficial economic cooperation and offer major support for enriching
China-Chile Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The China-Chile FTA,
which was signed in 2005 and has been implemented since 2006, is the first FTA
that China has signed with a Latin American country. To further promote the
cooperation in services and investment areas, both sides signed and implemented
the supplementary agreements concerning trade in services and investment that
were signed in 2008 and 2012 respectively. Since the China-Chile FTA has been
implemented for over ten years, the development of bilateral trade has entered
into the fast lane driven by the preferential measures in the Free Trade Areas.
In 2016, the trade value between the two countries reached US$31.36 billion,
4.4 times that of 2005 when the agreement has not been implemented. Since 2012,
China has become and has remained to be Chile's largest trading partner and
largest export destination and largest source of imports.
China-Chile international shipping service. Sea freight from China to Chile.
