EU-Chile Association Agreement

KEY POINTS

There are 3 strands to the agreement:

• political dialogue,
• cooperation, and
• trade.

Political dialogue

This strand seeks to promote and defend democratic values. The parties meet on a regular basis as well as coordinate their positions and undertake joint initiatives in international fora with a view to cooperating on foreign and security policy. Cooperation against terrorism is also part of this dialogue.

Cooperation

The objectives of this strand are to:

• strengthen institutional capacity,
• promote social development,
• stimulate productive synergies,
• increase cooperation.

Economic cooperation

This covers trade-related areas such as cooperation on standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, customs cooperation, cooperation in the agricultural and rural sectors, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, fisheries and statistics.

Economic cooperation covers:

• industrial cooperation through contacts, increased dialogue, industrial cooperation projects and strengthened innovation, diversification and product quality;
• cooperation to promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises;
• cooperation in services, the environment, energy, transport, tourism and mining;
• investment promotion;
• consumer protection and data protection;
• macroeconomic dialogue;
• intellectual property rights; and
• public procurement, where technical assistance is provided.

Cooperation in the fields of science, technology and information society

This focuses on dialogue, information exchange, trade promotion, training, joint projects and a stepping-up of activities in this area.

Cooperation in the fields of culture, education and audiovisual

This seeks to ensure sustained support at all levels of education and provide access to education for vulnerable social groups such as the disabled or the extremely poor.

Activities include joint training programmes and exchanges in the areas of press, cinema and television and youth.

Cooperation at administrative and interinstitutional level

This aims to modernise and decentralise public administration. This is achieved through technical assistance, sharing experience and know-how, as well as by means of studies and training.

Social cooperation

This is to encourage the participation of social partners and measures to prevent discrimination of either party’s nationals who are residing legally in the territory of the other. Priority is given to measures that:

• encourage human development,
• promote the role of women,
• modernise labour relations,
• develop an efficient health service,
• promote job creation.

Trade aspects

Part IV of the agreement contains the clauses governing trade and trade-related matters. It covers aspects including:

• the liberalisation of trade in goods and services;
• the improvement of the investment environment;
• the liberalisation of current payments and capital movements;
• the opening-up of government procurement markets;
• the protection of intellectual property rights;
• the establishment of an effective dispute settlement mechanism.

Implementation of the agreement

An Association Council is established to supervise the implementation of the agreement.

Amendments

The agreement has been amended on several occasions. These amendments have been made due to:

• new countries joining the EU at various stages and, most recently, Croatia;
• changes made to the agreement’s annexes and appendices concerning trade in certain products such as wines and spirit drinks;
• an updating of the rules concerning direct transport;
• technological changes (e.g. in the production of steel).