Latin America News – The four countries of the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico) today agreed a deal before March 31 so that at least 90% of the products are free of duty.
This was announced in Santiago Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, in a joint statement to the press after a meeting with his counterparts from Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, and Peru, Ollanta Humala, in the framework of the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Piñera also reported that it has been accepted as observer members Japan and Guatemala and that the next summit of this block will be held on May 24 in the city of Cali, where the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos will take over as president pro tempore group.
On tariff liberalization, they decided to implement a calendar tax free the remaining 10% of products up to 100% of free trade and also set March 31 as the deadline for concluding the agreement on rules of origin.
For the first half of this year were set other goals, including establishing the mechanism of market access to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and eliminate technical barriers to trade.
Expect further progress in trade facilitation, customs and establish collaboration agreements achieved to facilitate the exchange of financial services, transportation, telecommunications and professional.
Moreover, the proposed move towards free movement of investments. In that sense, Piñera announced that Mexico will join “very soon” to agree to integrate the stock of the member countries of the Alliance.
It has also proposed an agreement to regulate public procurement, while the pool of cooperation and the system of scholarships are already “in full swing”, as announced by the Chilean president.
The Pacific Alliance, formed in 2012, added 215 million people and represents about 35% of gross domestic product in Latin America. It also has as observer countries Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica and Spain.
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