The Undersecretary of Finance of Chile, Francisco Moreno, arrived this Thursday (26.09.2019) to the city of Concepción, in the Biobío region to participate in the first interregional meeting of central-southern foreign trade, convened by the Mayor of the Biobío region, Sergio Giacaman, and which was also attended by the mayors of Araucanía, Jorge Atton; Los Lagos, Harry Jürgensen; Los Ríos, Cesar Asenjo; and representatives of the Maule and Ñuble regions.
"As the Ministry of Finance, we are committed to continuing to expand trade markets, which is why we wanted to be present at this important meeting with mayors of the central-southern macro zone of our country. International trade represents an extraordinary path that allows us to improve living conditions of all Chileans, expands our markets and creates new sources of employment. At this meeting we will have the opportunity to analyze the current state of trade facilitation, to work together and to break down those barriers that prevent us from having greater trade exchange.", the authority said.
In his presentation, the authority reviewed the operation of the SICEX platform of the Ministry of Finance – a one-stop shop for exporting and importing goods and services – helping private companies to achieve greater productivity by saving time and costs, and public services in terms of inspection, health surveillance and efficiency in processes.
"The ports of the Biobío region are of great importance both for the macro zone and for the entire country, which is why we have focused on modernization measures for the Single Departure Document and the cargo scheduling function that will save time for carriers and ports.", Agregó.
The Undersecretary highlighted the advances that the platform has brought to exporters. In the case, for example, of salmon exports, approval could take up to 4,3 hours in the morning window or 20,3 hours in the afternoon window without this Integrated Foreign Trade System. With this system, the previous time was reduced to just 1 minute. According to reports from users of the system, this allows for savings of an average of between 150 and 250 dollars per container and faster entry into the primary zone.
"CAs the Ministry of Finance, given the important task we carry out in facilitating foreign trade through this single window, we want to take charge of the areas for improvement identified by the export sector in order to assign new tasks to public services. We need to continue reducing export times and, at the same time, continue reducing their associated costs”, said the authority.
Trade war and free trade agreements
The authority stressed that trade facilitation plays a central role in further deepening the country's levels of competitiveness, and that free trade agreements are also a fundamental boost.
In this regard, he recalled the impact that the Trade War between China and the United States - Chile's two largest trading partners - has had on world trade and also on Chilean exports. However, he added that our country has 27 trade agreements in force with a total of 65 economies, which represent 87% of the world's GDP.
"Chile is the country with the largest number of trade agreements in force in the world. One of the ways to overcome the negative effects of trade tensions on our exports is to continue the process of integrating the Chilean economy into the world.".
This is why, since the beginning of the Trade War, Chile has approved new free trade agreements as well as deepening agreements with 9 economies including Uruguay, Argentina, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, modernizations with Canada and China, investments with Hong Kong and others, as well as a modifying protocol of the Pacific Alliance Agreement and the entry of Croatia into the European Union. In addition, there are other negotiations underway such as: Ecuador; Digital Economy Partnership Agreement between Chile, New Zealand and Singapore; Modernizations with the European Union and South Korea and the Pacific Alliance and Associated States.
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