Chile

“Trade Policy Reviews” analyse the trade policies and practices of each member of the WTO. The reviews consist of three parts: an independent report by the WTO Secretariat a report by the government and the concluding remarks by the Chair of the WTO’s Trade Policy Review Body. The opening section - “key trade facts” - provides a visual overview of the WTO member’s major exports/imports main export destinations origins for its imports and other key data. This edition looks into the trade practices of Chile.

The fifth Trade Policy Review of Chile has allowed us to have a better understanding of Chile’s trade and investment policies since its last Review in 2009 and the challenges that it faces. Our discussion has benefitted from the constructive participation of the Chilean delegation headed by Mr Andrés Rebolledo Director General of International Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the valuable comments from the discussant the Permanent Representative of Hong Kong China to the WTO Ms Irene Young. Members appreciated Chile’s response to the more than 320 advance written questions and we look forward to answers to any outstanding questions no later than one month after this meeting

For many developing states which have experienced a substantial decline in their share of world trade and global value added Aid for Trade (AFT) initiatives have become a critical source of support in a context where these countries suffer from both market and government failure. As such the key issue is whether AFT programmes as currently configured are the right policy instrument or set of instruments to address the weak participation of developing countries in global trade and global value chains. In many regards the problem relates to an overdependence on a narrow range of exports (e.g. agricultural and resource-based commodities and low value-added manufacturing goods and services) that are faced with declining terms of trade tariff progressivity and diminishing economic returns (Reinert 2007). One of the key criticisms that has emerged is that the focus of AFT donors and relevant implementing agencies has been heavily weighted on the architecture of trade support programmes and not sufficiently on industrial upgrading and enterprise development (Cirera 2009).