Australia signs big trade deal with Chile

Chile has come a long way since the days of General Augusto Pinochet.

It has, for example, become an important trade and investment partner for Australia.

Two way trade between the two countries is now worth $855 million a year.

And that is likely to soar to the $1 billion a year mark, under a new free trade agreement, that the two countries have now reached.

Australia’s Trade minister, Simon Crean, who announced the deal yesterday, said it would probably come into effect on January 1 next year.

“It is an agreement of the highest quality on goods,” Crean said.

He said tariffs on 97 per cent of the goods traded between the two countries would be removed from “day one.”

The rest would be scrapped by 2015.

Crean said, too, that the new agreement exceeded WTO standards, in the services sector.

“It includes a ratchet mechanism that locks in any liberalisation achieved within Chile on services and investment,” he added.

Australia is also a major investor in Chile, with foreign direct investments of some $3 billion, mostly in that country’s mining industry.