Chile-Thailand Free Trade Agreement Comes into Effect

[HD videos below] After business negotiations started in April 2011 between Thailand and Chile, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between both countries is now finally in effect, granting immediate preferential access to more than 90% of bilateral trade products.

“After achieving agreements with Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam in ASEAN, we now have an agreement with Thailand, which will have preferential access to our market and more investment opportunities on a region that is very relevant and strategic for our country,” said Andres Rebolledo, General Director for the Chilean General Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON). “This is the only agreement with an ASEAN country which does not have excluded products. With this, all of the Chilean export offer will be benefited on this market. Likewise, chapters of trade services and financial services were added, along with the establishment of a commitment to start negotiations for an investment chapter within a two-year period, which is important because there are Chilean companies which are already involved in the ASEAN market.”

Among the main Thai products that will enter Chile with zero duty from now on are crude oil, natural gas, pick-up trucks, cars, canned tuna, digital photographic cameras, and canned pineapple. Other products with three years’ tax relief are apples, cherries, kiwi, and blueberries.

On the other hand, among the main Chilean products benefited with zero duty since the agreement came into effect are copper cathodes, frozen trout, molybdenum concentrate, lithium carbonate, bovine, pork, lamb and poultry meats, condensed milk, cheese, nuts, avocados, tomato paste, car gearboxes, wood products, paper, and cardboard.

This FTA adds disciplines like technical barriers to trade (TBT), origin rules, environmental issues, work issues, public procurement, and sanitary and phytosanitary actions, to invigorate trading and nimbly resolve eventual differences.

The agreement also considers a cooperation section that allows narrowing relations among public, private, and academic fields in areas of mutual interest such as energy, innovation and development, tourism, education, and gender, among others.

Business negotiations between Chile and Thailand started in April 2011, successfully concluding in August 2012 after six negotiation rounds, whereupon the signatures and internal legal processing started in both countries.

Thailand - Chile Trade Exchange in Figures

Currently, Chile is Thailand’s third major trade partner in South America, after Brazil and Argentina.

Thailand is Chile’s first trade partner in ASEAN, with a trade exchange of more than US$ 1 billion in 2014.

With US$ 288 million exported by Chile to Thailand in 2014, this Asian country is now Chile’s 31st exports destination in the world.

Last year, the main Chilean products exported to Thailand were frozen fish, copper and minerals, chemical wood pulp, molybdenum minerals, grapes, and wine [see interview below], among others.

The main Thai products exported to Chile last year were engine vehicles, tourism carts, canned fish and preparations with fish, television receivers, clothes, and washing machines, among others.

Wines of Chile Interview - HD (Sept 2015)

Ambassador of Chile to Thailand Interview - HD (Sept 2015)

See more: HD Videos.