Ｃｈｉｎａ ａｎｄ Ｃｈｉｌｅ Ｓｉｇｎｉｎｇ ｆｒｅｅ Ｔｒａｄｅ Ａｇｒｅｅｍｅｎｔ

Mr. Bo Xilai， Minister of Com-merce of China， and Mr.Walker， Foreign Minister of Chile， signed the China-Chile FTA onbehalf of their respective government onNovember 18， 2005. Chinese PresidentHu Jintao and Chile President Lagos at-tended the signing ceremony， accordingto a press release on the website of Net-work Center of MOFCOM.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chil-ean President Lagos declared the start ofthe FTA negotiations on November 18，2004. China and Chile had carried out 5rounds of negotiations on market access，rules of origin， technical barriers to trade，SPS， trade remedy， dispute settlementmechanism， and cooperation， and reachedagreement recently. According to theagreement， the two countries would starttariff reduction of goods trade from July1，2006. Tariff of products accounting for97% of the total of the two countrieswould be zero stage by stage in ten years.China and Chile would carry out coop-eration in economy， SME， culture，education， science technology， envi-ronment protection， labor， social security，IPR， investment and promotion， mineraland industry.

The agreement was the second FTAChina has signed with other countries af-ter the China-ASEAN FTA， and the firstFTA China has signed with Latin Ameri-can countries. The signing of the agree-ment would affect China-Chile economicand trade cooperation and developmentof overall cooperative partnership， and seta new example of South-South Coopera-tion in international society. The agree-ment would bring more opportunities forthe two business communities， and moretangible benefits for the two peoples.

Since establishment of diplomatic re-lations in 1970， China and Chile main-tained a good and steady bilateral relation，and promote it to be overall cooperativepartnership in 2004， and bilateral relationsdeveloped steadily. Chile was the thirdtrading partner of China in Latin America.In 2004， bilateral trade reached USS 5.4billion， up by 52%. In January throughSeptember， 2005， bilateral trade amountedto USS 5.3 billion， up by 36%. The twoeconomies were strongly complementary to each other in industrial structure andimport and export commodity mix. Chinamainly exported such products to Chile aselectromechanical products， light indus-trial products， textiles， and plastic products，while imported from Chile copper， pulp，iron ore， wine， fish powder and fruit.Moreover， China and Chile had a goodcooperative relationship and prosperousdevelopment in the areas of service tradeand investment.

Minister Bo Xilai gave a very highpraise in the press conference after thesigning ceremony， he said: The bilateralFTA between China and Chile is very ac-five in promoting the trade relation of thetwo sides and in enhancing the industrialdevelopment of the two countries.Meanwhile， it will no doubt perform animportant role in enhancing the bilateraleconomic and trade collaberations in thecoming days， hence， it will create greatbenefits to the economies of the twocountries.

Bo stressed that the bilateral FTA is aWin-Win agreement. By means of cuttingthe tariff barriers and the non-tariff barriers， improving the condition of mar- ket entering， both sides have created a bet- ter trade environment. The products pro- duced in Chile， including copper， copperore sand， iron ore sand， saltpeter， fish meal， paper pulp， grape wine， fruits， etc.can be more imported to Chinese market.In the meantime， Chile people can enjoymore Chinese appliance and textile prod-ucts in high quality and low prices. Chinais actively promoting the construction ofthe free trade zone because China is anopened country. It is one of our basic na-tional policies to enlarge opening.

The negotiation between China and Chile was conducted in high efficiency.It is a good coincidence that also on No-vember 18 of last year， the top leaders ofthe two countries sponsored the negotia-tion on the free trade zone， one year later，on the same day， the top leaders of thetwo countries witness the ceremony of theagreement signing， Bo said.

In 2004， the China-Chile tradereached US$5.3 billion， for a growth rateof 42%.In the first half year， it has in-creased for 30% than last year. It is very conspicuous that the bilateral trade is ina stage of rapid growth.

During the recent years， China hasbecome the largest partner of Chile incopper trade and copper ore sand trade. Iam sure that by means of the bilateralFTA， the Chile copper and copper oresand will enter Chinese market with lowercosts. Chinese enterprises are in thirst forChile copper and copper ore sand .Bo said.

The China-Chile trade is developedbasing on the principle of free trade andmutual benefit. Of course， after the sign-ing of the bilateral FTA， China will im-port more Chile products includingcopper， iron， saltpeter， grape wine andwater products， but in the meantime，China will increase export to Chile. The China-Chile trade is not very large， thedeficit is not very big as well.