President Piñera highlights the progress made by the Pacific Alliance to strengthen integration and trade and foster measures for comprehensive development
In the plenary session of the bloc – comprising Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico – the President called on his peers to promote existing positive initiatives in each country and to replicate them in the bloc, such as the elimination of international roaming, the prohibition of plastic bags and the unification of regulations such as food labeling.
On Tuesday, President Sebastián Piñera praised the progress made at the Pacific Alliance Summit to strengthen free trade among its partners, with the Mercosur bloc and with the countries of the Asia-Pacific Basin.
At the meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the President announced four new proposals that were agreed with Peru, Colombia and Mexico to begin a "new chapter" of the bloc. "The Pacific Alliance is entering a new stage," said President Piñera.
Some of the proposals to strengthen trade relations between bloc countries include:
1. Accelerating the reduction in tariffs and the elimination of non-tariff barriers, in order to create a free trade zone between the four countries.
2. Strengthening the Alliance's institutional framework and governance.
3. Consolidating the relationship with the 55 observer countries and speeding up the incorporation of associated countries, starting with Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, and moving on to South Korea and Ecuador.
4. Transforming the Pacific Alliance into an observer member of APEC and transforming the bloc into a major free trade area within the Asia-Pacific region.
“We are doing all this, of course, on the basis of the successful experience and lessons learned during these first seven years, while also keeping all the strength, pioneering spirit, innovation, audacity and sense of urgency that have been key to the success of the Pacific Alliance," said the President.
During the plenary session, the President proposed eliminating international roaming, invited the other countries to prohibit stores from providing plastic bags and to unify some regulations, for example, on food labeling, with the aim of facilitating trade among the bloc. The member countries agreed to make their foreign affairs ministers responsible for technical roundtables to make progress on these projects.
The President also welcomed the agreements reached at the summit between the members of the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur to develop a large free trade area in Latin America, which could account for more than 90% of the region's trade export GDP.
“The most important thing still remains: to make these proposals and objectives happen, thereby improving our capacity to grow, create jobs, improve salaries and the quality of life for everyone in the countries of the Pacific Alliance and, of course, in the countries of the Mercosur too,” said the President.