Chile hopes to bridge Asia and S. America
Chile hopes to bridge Asia and S. America
By Paul Iredale
JAKARTA (Reuter): Chile served notice this past week it
planned to be a power in the rich Asia-Pacific trading zone,
rolling into town to join the group with a crisp roadshow and a
large team of businessmen.
The high profile of the "new kid on the block" contrasted
sharply with that of Mexico, until last week the only Latin
member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum,
which has decided to create the world's biggest free trade zone
by 2020.
While Chilean President Eduardo Frei held a lunch with
Indonesian businessmen and led a delegation of 160 people,
Mexican President Carlos Salinas made a shorter and altogether
quieter visit.
"We want to actively participate in building a new era of
transpacific cooperation, to be important actors in the changes
taking place in the region and to help to create a true Pacific
community," Frei told the Indonesian chamber of commerce and
industry.
"This is our political will and we will act accordingly."
Mexico clearly has a different political agenda at the moment
from its "compadre" to the south.
The Mexican government is about to undergo its six-yearly
shake-up as a new president takes office and jobs are changed
through to the widest reaches of the administration.
Salinas himself, barred by the constitution from re-election,
is looking for new work as the director of the World Trade
Organization, which takes over from the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) next year.
While he did not raise his WTO candidacy at the APEC summit,
his participation underlined what he sees as his global
credentials for the job.
Chile's entry as the 18th member of APEC, a group responsible
for half the world's trade, is its latest success in the march
back onto the world's stage.
Shunned internationally for decades under military strongman
Augusto Pinochet, Chile has since its return to democracy in
March 1990 worked assiduously to produce a web of trade links
through Latin America, Europe and the Pacific.
Frei, making his first Asian visit since becoming president in
March, talked of "the viability of my country as a country that
can become a bridge between Asia and South America, and as a
trustworthy partner for the Asian community's interests in our
hemisphere."
Chile's economic record is impressive. It boasts average
annual growth of 6.3 percent over the past four years, is fifth
among emerging economies in global competitiveness, and has the
highest country-risk rating in Latin America.
This compares with economic growth of 2.8 percent in Mexico in
1992, and 0.4 percent last year.
But Mexico has one great advantage that still eludes Chile --
a trade deal with the United States.
Chile has been offered negotiations on entry to the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Mexico, the United
States and Canada launched at the beginning of this year, but it
is still waiting to begin talks.
For Chile, which already sends 32 percent of its exports to
Asia, free access to the Asian market is arguably more
significant than it might be for Mexico, which sends 86 percent
of its exports and receives 72.9 percent of its imports from
within NAFTA.
Other Latin nations are waiting in the wings for the hold-down
on new membership of APEC to expire.
Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador have all expressed an interest
in joining APEC.
And Peru, which like Chile conducts 31 percent of its trade
with Asia, is already talking to the group about taking part in
its working groups.