A full report is available after the Senior Officials' Meeting on 23 August, 2008 at: http://www.apec.org/redirect/2008_iap_chile.html 

Having announced its intention to eliminate tariffs on most imports by 2010, Chile has reduced Most Favored Nation tariffs to a nearly uniform 6 percent and is poised to achieve its goal through the pursuit of trade agreements with its trading partners as a complement to multilateral commitments.

Quantitative import restrictions and licensing, surveillance mechanisms and cartels are prohibited. The only forms of import licensing are those required for human and animal health and safety purposes. In this respect, there are very few impediments to Chile's meeting the Bogor goals.

Chile has been an early liberalizer of trade in services, and the strength of its finance and telecommunications sectors illustrates the benefits of this strategy. Chile has voluntarily committed to removing service market access restrictions by 2010, and is using its negotiations of trade agreements to lock in market access reforms.

Chile has long maintained a liberal, open and transparent investment regime and all investors, national or foreign, are guaranteed legal protection. Private property rights are fully protected under the constitution, and property can only be expropriated pursuant to specific constitutional provisions. The regime allows for free entry of capital, and the Central Bank is not allowed to reject foreign investments, although it may impose conditions (such as a one-year retention requirement) on the transfer of funds.

Chile has legislated new procedures for the development of technical regulations that significantly improve transparency and assessment of impacts. Chile continues to lock in its commitment to good practice by including commitments on standards and conformance in its trade agreements with regional and international partners - including many APEC economies.

Chile had already implemented a significant range of APEC's collective action priorities in 1996. Since then it has moved to implement most of the outstanding actions.

Intellectual Property Rights

Chile has been strengthening the institutional arrangements for protection of Intellectual Property Rights, amending key laws and creating a specialized unit to investigate IPR infringements.

Chile exposes domestic producers of goods and services to international competition with a robust framework that includes actions against anti-competitive conduct. Its competition law applies to sectoral regulators and other parts of Government, as well as private entities, so as to ensure that Government policies and practices do not restrict competition.

Chile's Procurement Law provides the contractual framework for the purchase of goods and services and operates through an electronic procurement platform available to all public agencies, regional and provincial governments, municipalities, armed forces and the justice sector. The procurement of public works and concessions continues to be ruled by existing and independent regulations. According to analysts, this internationally recognized e-commerce platform serves as the backbone of the government procurement system.

Chile has been a leader amongst developing economies in opening up the financial sector, network industries and infrastructure to competition and private participation. It is presently embarking on major reforms to the pension system in order to raise benefits, increase returns to savings and encourage participation in the formal labor market.

Chile ratified the Uruguay Round Agreements and became a founding member of the WTO on January 1, 1995. Since then, Chile has introduced several adjustments to its legislation in order to make it fully compatible with its WTO commitments. Chile has fully implemented all its WTO obligations (or what is referred to as GATS) and Rules of Origin. Chile is not signatory to WTO plurilateral agreements and no further implementation is planned.

Chile holds a constitutional guarantee of rights to appeal against arbitrary actions of the administration. In addition, Chile is a party to key international agreements on dispute settlement, and is building mechanisms for settling disputes within the network of trade agreements to which it is party.

Chile has been active in promoting the APEC Business Travel Card. It is committed to participating in multilateral efforts to establish common criteria for visa regimes and to consulting the business community to facilitate mobility. Regulations for immigration are publicly available online and Government has incorporated a chapter on "Temporary Entry for Business Persons in its FTAs.

Because Chile has adopted an exceptionally liberal multi-track approach to advancing trade and investment ? even beyond the Asia Pacific ? free and regional trade agreements are a key vehicle. In general, Chile's active FTA/RTA policy reflects its advocacy of economic liberalization within each of the regional and multilateral economic fora in which it participates.

Chile has achieved an impressive record of implementing the APEC Menu of Options to Trade Facilitation, and should complete pending items and to commit to new items from the Menu.

As a major exporter of food to APEC markets and the rest of the world, Chile has a large stake in further liberalization of food trade, and appropriate application of sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, food safety and environmental standards and protection of intellectual property. Public?private cooperation has been a key part of Chile's approach to facilitating food trade.

Transparency is largely achieved under the Central Bank, which is obliged to publish Chile's main national macroeconomic statistics. In addition, Chile's public debt is published every year on the Ministry of Finance's webpage, as is a report of the standing of public finance. Information related to government finances is provided by the Budget Office and may also be accessed online. All relevant statistics are reviewed in the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes and published by the International Monetary Fund.

Carolyn Williams at (51) 98927 4393 in Peru or at cdw@apec.org

Anita Douglas at (51) 98927 4391 in Peru or at ad@apec.org