2010-08-02 15:20

SANTIAGO - Chile and China will further expand trade relations as their free trade agreement (FTA) enters a new phase starting Sunday, said an Chilean official.

In this phase, the scope of bilateral trade will go beyond commodities to the services sector, according to a supplementary protocol of the FTA, which was inked in 2006, Mario Artaza, head of Asia and Oceania affairs at the Chilean foreign ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The protocol will allow service suppliers in each country to access the other's market, he added.

Sectors included in the protocol are computing, air transport, mining, sports geological prospecting, geophysics, real estate, advertising, study market, environment, consultancies, consulting and legal services.

Chile was the first Latin American country that signed a FTA with China and bilateral trade reached record-high $16.5 billion in 2009, said the official.

"In the first six months of 2010, bilateral trade have already exceeded $10 billion," he said.

"Since 2005, China and Chile have walked on a joint path toward free trade," Artaza said.

The two nations will have a "very active future concerning trade, cooperation and everything related to investments, where bilateral relationships presents greatest potential," he said.

Artaza, who had spent five years as Chile's trade representative in China, stressed that "the bilateral relationship is built on a solid base of 40 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations."