With both sides offering to lower or eliminate tariffs on a number of items, India and Chile have agreed to broaden their bilateral preferential trade agreement (PTA). The agreement was signed by Commerce Secretary, Rita Teaotia and the South American country's Ambassador to India, Andres Barbe Gonzalez.

"Under the new PTA, Chile has offered concessions to India on 1,798 tariff lines with margin of preference (MoP) ranging from 30 per cent to 100 per cent. On the other hand, India has offered concessions on 1,031 tariff lines at 8-digit level with MoP ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent to Chile," said a Commerce Ministry statement.

Signed in March 2006, and effective since August 2007, the original PTA had India offering 178 tariff lines to Chile, with the margin of preference ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent. Meanwhile, Chile offered 296 tariff lines to India with MoP ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent. India's bilateral trade with Chile stood at $2.64 billion in 2015-16, making it India's third largest trading partner among the Latin American and Caribbean Nations (LAC) grouping. "India's export basket with Chile is diversified and keeping in view the wide variety of tariff lines offered by Chile, the expanded PTA would immensely benefit India," the statement added. Exports to Chile include transport equipment, drugs and pharmaceuticals, yarn of polyester fibres and tyres and tubes, among others.