Daily Times

SANTIAGO: Chilean Ambassador to China Jorge Heine praised multilateral free-trade efforts in the Asia-Pacific region and stressed China’s role in this issue in an article.

“China will be a crucial piece in the jigsaw puzzle of designing an architecture that will give new impetus to trade across the Pacific,” Heine wrote in the article carried by the La Tercera daily. The Chilean diplomat said Chinese President Xi Jinping has “shown the advantages of multilateralism in a world where various countries are now showing they prefer unilateral solutions to global problems.”

Heine also wrote to highlight the importance of a high-level international dialogue to be held in Chile on March 14-15. Chile has invited Australia and other Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) signatories in Latin America and Asia, other members of the Pacific Alliance — Colombia, Peru and Mexico, as well as China and South Korea to the dialogue. Chile is a member of the TPP and of the Pacific Alliance. The United States initiated the TPP trade deal but has recently withdrawn from it.

Heine said “the rejection of the TPP by the United States has” raised a question of “how to continue driving commercial openness in the world’s most dynamic area.” In his eyes, possible answers include opening to others the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) under negotiation. The RCEP now includes 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, as well as China, India, Japan and South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Heine also mentioned the Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). A collective strategic study on it was discussed during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Lima in November. He said Chile’s progress “is due to an international trade policy that maximizes the benefits of globalization and focuses on Asia, the destination of 50 percent of our exports.” As for the high-level dialogue to be held in March in Chile, Heine said the Pacific Alliance “is well-positioned to lead this dialogue,” and that “Chile, a pioneer in the region’s closeness with Asia, has the credentials for such an ambitious initiative.”