Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico to Eliminate Most Trade Barriers by April Lucy Hughes Jones - The Santiago Times
go to original January 29, 2013

(From left) Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and Peruvian President Ollanta Humana at the Pacific Alliance meeting held on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Gobierno de Chile.

Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico agreed to completely free up trade between the four countries during the sixth annual Summit of the Pacific Alliance, held in Santiago on Sunday.

The decision, made within the framework of the CELAC-EU Summit, which concludes Monday in Santiago, is the latest initiative from the new regional partnership launched to counterbalance the Atlantic-facing, Brazil-led Mercosur group.

President Sebastián Piñera announced that member nations decided to "close our tariff agreement before March 31st this year, which means that at least 90 percent of products will be freed from all kinds of tax on trade between our countries.”

“The remaining 10 percent will have a timetable in which to achieve the goal of 100 percent free trade," added Piñera in a joint statement with presidents Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Ollanta Humala of Peru and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico. No timeline was given for this goal.

Piñera outlined the targets for the first half of 2013 to be “achieving agreements to facilitate the exchange of financial, transport, telecommunication and professional services.” Market access for trade between the four nations will also be implemented, as well as increased customs cooperation in order to strengthen sanitary measures for agricultural goods crossing borders.

Founded in 2012 with the goal of boosting trade with the resource-hungry Asia-Pacific region, the Pacific Alliance has a combined GDP of US$1.7 trillion dollars, which is equal to 35 percent of Latin America’s GDP. Leaders of the four countries also announced the acceptance of Japan and Guatemala as two observer members to the alliance on Sunday.

The rapid progress of the Pacific Alliance has distinguished the ambitious economic bloc against existing regional agreements, particularly Mercosur. Distinctive elements include the expansion of the integrated stock exchange known as the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA), which was created in May 2011 when Lima, Bogotá and Santiago merged their stock markets under one intermediary exchange. In his address, Piñera announced that plans for Mexico’s stock exchange to join MILA were underway, which would make MILA’s operations competitive to the largest stock market in the region, Brazil’s Bovespa. Piñera also noted the developments of the Pacific Alliance Fund, which created a unique joint university system to facilitate exchange scholarships for students between the four countries.

The next meeting of the Pacific Alliance will take place on May 24 in Cali, Colombia, where Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will assume the body’s rotating presidency.

hjones@santiagotimes.cl

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