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PRESS/TPRB/224
4 December 2003
(03-6449)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: CHILE
Continued trade liberalization ha s made Chile’s economy one of
the most open and resilient
Chile has continued to reform and liberalize its already open trade and investment regime, both
unilaterally and reciprocally. This and the sound macro-economic policies applied help to explain
the resilience of the economy in the face of various external shocks, according to a report on the
trade policies and practices of Chile released 4 December by the WTO Secretariat.
The report says that since 1997, Chile’s average applied MFN tariff has fallen from 11% to 6%,
and that trade plays and increasingly important role in Chile’s economy. The report stresses thatthe uniform treatment of all sectors of the economic activity remains a key-feature of Chile’s
policies, as witnessed by an almost uniform applied MFN tariff, the absence of significant
programmes to assist specific activities, and the granting of national treatment to foreign investorsin all but a few cases.
But the report also adds that the increased numbe r of Chile’s preferential trade agreements has
reduced the share of Chilean trade conduced under MFN conditions. Distortions might also arise
from the use of a price band system to protect a handful of agricultural products and of export
support schemes, says the report.
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Chile, will be the basis for
the third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Chile by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 2 and4 December 2003.
The following documents are available in MS Word format on the WTO web-site. They can be
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp224e.htm
• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations
> Economic environment
> Trade policy regime: framework and objectives> Trade policies and practices by measure
> Trade policies by sector
> Appendix tablesPRESS/TPRB/224
Page 2 of 2
• Government report
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks
• Minutes of the meeting (available approximately six weeks after the meeting).
Note
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member
countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant
developments that may have an impact on the gl obal trading system are also monitored. For each
review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under
review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents
are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). Thesedocuments and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are publishe d shortly afterwards.
Print copies of the TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William
Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop at
https://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly
Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States
Next reviews:
Turkey : 17, 19 December 2003
United States : 14 and 16 of January 2004
Gambia : 4 and 6 of February 2004
For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tpr_e.htm#reviews
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews
END