The China-Chile free trade agreement has been upgraded. With this, Chile has abolished tariffs on Chinese textiles and clothing. The China-Chile free trade zone has become China’s free trade zone with the highest level of open trade. This is also China’s first FTA upgrading agreement with a Latin American country.

With the upgraded FTA, 98 per cent products under bilateral trade would enjoy zero tariff. The agreement further explores the potential of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, enhances the level of trade liberalisation and facilitation between the two countries, and enriches the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, which is of great significance for further deepening the economic and trade cooperation between China and Latin America. The agreement has also revised and supplemented the chapters including the rules of origin and economic and technical cooperation, and added new rules on topics including e-commerce, competition, environment and trade.

The China-Chile FTA was signed in 2005 and was implemented in 2006. In November 2016, China and Chile launched the FTA upgrading negotiations and signed the same in November 2017. In 2018, China-Chile bilateral trade registered an increase of 24 per cent year-on-year. China now accounts for almost one-third of Chile’s total foreign trade.