PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/224

4 December 2003

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: CHILE

Continued trade liberalization has made Chile’s economy one of the most open and resilient

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Chile, will be the basis for the third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Chile by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 2 and 4 December 2003.

Chile has continued to reform and liberalize its already open trade and investment regime, both unilaterally and reciprocally. This and the sound macro-economic policies applied help to explain the resilience of the economy in the face of various external shocks, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of Chile released 4 December by the WTO Secretariat.

The report says that since 1997, Chile’s average applied MFN tariff has fallen from 11% to 6%, and that trade plays and increasingly important role in Chile’s economy. The report stresses that the uniform treatment of all sectors of the economic activity remains a key-feature of Chile’s policies, as witnessed by an almost uniform applied MFN tariff, the absence of significant programmes to assist specific activities, and the granting of national treatment to foreign investors in all but a few cases.

But the report also adds that the increased number of Chile’s preferential trade agreements has reduced the share of Chilean trade conduced under MFN conditions. Distortions might also arise from the use of a price band system to protect a handful of agricultural products and of export support schemes, says the report.

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The following documents are available in MS Word format.

Secretariat report

> Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 116KB)

> Economic environment (12 pages, 616KB)

> Trade policy regime: framework and objectives (15 pages, 166KB)

> Trade policies and practices by measure (31 pages, 271KB)

> Trade policies by sector (28 pages, 280KB)

> Appendix tables (11 pages, 213KB)

Government report (12 pages, 76KB)

Chairperson's concluding remarks

Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.

Note back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews back to top

Turkey: 17, 19 December 2003

United States: 14 and 16 of January 2004

Gambia: 4 and 6 of February 2004