Chile signs free trade agreement with Turkey
Published: July 22, 2009
With the signing of this new economic agreement, Chile consolidates its position as an investment platform in Latin America and opens the door to an economic zone with great potential.
On Tuesday, July 14th, the Chilean Government signed a new free trade agreement (FTA) with Turkey, the only such arrangement that Turkey has made with a country in the region. Chile has one of the lowest credit risks in Latin America and is one of the few countries in the region where levels of investment have continued to grow.
The agreement will benefit Chile's mining, agricultural, fishing, forestry and wine companies. In turn, Turkish products, such as machinery, cars and domestic appliances, will enter Chile tariff free.
President Bachelet affirmed that this agreement represents a "powerful impulse for the reactivation of the Chilean economy". She defined Turkey as a "medium-sized European power" that provides "an entrance into an economic zone with great potential".
The Turkish Minister, Zafer Çağlayan, highlighted that this is the first FTA Turkey has signed with an American country, reflecting the importance of Chile in terms of its economic and political stability. At the same time, this is the first agreement of its type that Chile has signed with a predominantly Muslim country. Çağlayan suggested that both countries can work together, each acting as a regional platform for the other.
"For Chile, this opens the opportunity to access new markets via the network of agreements that this Euro-Asian country has with Central Asia and the Middle East," commented Çağlayan. He reflected that Turkey's own goal is to become one of the ten strongest economies in the world by its anniversary in 2023.
The Chilean Chancellor, Mariano Fernández, believes that with this FTA, as has occurred in the past with similar agreements, trade between the two countries can be doubled within two or three years. In 2008, trade between Chile and Turkey reached US$1.1 billion.
Turkey is a market with 75 million inhabitants. It has a GDP of US$750 billion and a per capita income of US$13,000. For Chile, it also represents a geographical and cultural opening to a potential market of 300 million consumers.
Source:www.minrel.gov.clwww.canal13.cl