[ARCHIVO] President Bachelet: “Chile and Canada are strong supporters of the multilateral trade system and regional integration”
In the context of her State Visit to Canada and after meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Michelle Bachelet offered a positive assessment of the work completed with the North American country. She said, “We had the opportunity to exchange perspectives and look at how to jointly address challenges and uncertainties. We also confirmed our commitment to values such as democracy, human rights, gender inequality, women’s empowerment, the importance of global peace and security, multilateralism and free trade”.
The President explained that, “we also discussed the importance of guaranteeing women’s empowerment, equal rights for women and the rights of each person in the world, and the importance of women in peacekeeping operations and the impacts of conflicts on girls and women. We talked about how women must be part of resolutions and how they create the long-term basis for peace and security”.
She continued, “we discussed global challenges and, of course, what must be done in terms of the various challenges that we face. Chile and Canada are responding by reinforcing and updating our 20 year-old Free Trade Agreement in order to ensure that it is more inclusive, progressive and beneficial to all of our citizens”.
During the visit, two Free Trade Agreement (FTA) modernization agreements were signed on accords that date back to 1997. The first establishes advanced standards and clear parameters in sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures; covers the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) for facilitating trade flows; and includes changes to the Public Purchases
Section, addressing the use of electronic channels in bidding processes and adjusting timeframes for the submission of bids. The second covers changes to the FTA investment section to modernize dispositions related to the inclusion of the reaffirmation of the States’ right to regulation, the introduction of a new article related to corporate social responsibility and improvements to the State-investment dispute resolution mechanism. It also adds a Gender and Trade section.
Canada is the fourth largest investor in Chile behind the U.S. and Spain. Cumulative Canadian IED stock between 1974 and 2015 totaled US$14.297 billion (according to the Central Bank). Seventy percent of this was focused on the mining sector, as this nation is the top investor in that area. In addition, its companies invest in gas, electricity and water services and the chemical industry. Chilean investment in Canada totaled US$1.825 billion in 2015 and was focused on the mining, industrial and services sectors.
In closing, the President noted that, “Chile and Canada are strong supporters of the multilateral trade system and regional integration, the PA, WTO, APEC, OECD and the TPP. We have stood alongside each other, defending progressive free trade and the importance of the Asia Pacific region as a new global center for investment and trade”.