Chile to act as bridge for APEC, S. America

Chile to act as bridge for APEC, S. America

SANTIAGO (Reuter): Chile hopes to strengthen its role as an Asian bridge to South America through its membership in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, President Eduardo Frei said on Tuesday.

Frei, who will bring Chile into the forum at its summit in Indonesia next week, said Chile's long Pacific coastline, its improving road links with its neighbors and its strong economy put it in a good position to act as a trade nexus with Asia.

"Chile could act as a bridge with South America, as long as we keep moving closer to regional markets," Frei told foreign journalists. "We can be a bridge, but not necessarily the only bridge nor do we aspire to be a model for other bridges."

"We're a small country with a good economy," he said. "We're going to the APEC summit with a very optimistic, very positive vision and with a desire to learn about its experience and deepen our relations (with APEC) on every level."

Frei leaves today for the summit in Bogor, Indonesia, with a brief stop in Australia where is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Paul Keating.

After the summit, Frei will head for Japan and South Korea where he is due to meet the leaders of those countries and top industrialists.

Chilean officials had been driving home the importance of Chile's opening to Asian-Pacific trade at a time when the country's efforts to join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had been put on hold by the United States.

Delay

But Frei denied the delay in joining NAFTA had led Chile to put its hopes in APEC.

"There will be many talks about trade and economies but it is a place for fundamentally-political dialogues," he said. "When we all get together, it will be as political leaders."

Due to become APEC's 18th member at the summit, Chile is already the second largest Latin American exporter to the Asian Pacific region after Brazil.

Frei said he will walk into the summit with an open agenda and without rigid opinions on issues expected to come up, such as the possibility of an Asian-Pacific free trade zone by the year 2020.

"We're going as equals in this important forum, without pre- fixed concepts and with an open mind," said Frei.

But he suggested Chile may not feel an urgent need to move quickly towards a Pacific free trade agreement by saying its experience with country-by-country bilateral agreements, rather than regional pacts, had been very favorable.

"Chile has always taken the road of bilateral agreements with a lot of success. The bilateral road has been highly efficient, and it's given us great results," he said, giving as examples agreements with Argentina, Mexico and Colombia and one under negotiation with Brazil.

Chile is APEC's second Latin American member after Mexico. The other members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.