Comercio y el Desarrollo

This 2009 report by Edmundo Claro for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) analyzes the integration of sustainable development—specifically environmental and labor standards—into Chile's trade and investment policies. While Chile has actively included these themes in many of its free trade agreements (FTAs), the report identifies significant gaps in its foreign direct investment (FDI) framework and its approach to climate change.

• Since 1973, Chile has transitioned from a protectionist model to a liberal trade policy focused on exports, resulting in more than 20 trade liberalization agreements and a significant reduction in tariffs from an average of 100% in 1973 to 6% by 2009.
• Chile has been more proactive than regional peers like Brazil and Argentina in incorporating sustainable development into trade deals; of its 19 active trade agreements, 12 include environmental commitments and 8 include labor commitments.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Chile is governed by an open system, primarily the Foreign Investment Statute, but these regulations largely ignore environmental, labor, or climate change issues.
• The inclusion of environmental and labor standards in Chile's trade agreements was driven by international trends, demands from partners (such as the influence of NAFTA), the need for international competitiveness, and a desire to strengthen national legislation.
• Chile's environmental commitments in FTAs, such as those with Canada, the EU, and the US, generally emphasize the right of each country to set its own levels of protection and the obligation to effectively enforce existing national laws rather than harmonizing legislation.
• Chile is deficient in integrating climate change into its trade agenda, which is viewed as a risk given the imminent arrival of market and regulatory requirements regarding 'carbon footprints'.
• While Chile has participated in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, representing 2.44% of registered projects as of October 2007, this has not translated into a broader trade strategy for climate change.
• Labor commitments in Chile's trade agreements are often seen as insufficient because they do not impose obligations beyond those already acquired through the ILO and lack commercial sanctions for non-compliance.
• The report warns that if FDI continues to concentrate on natural resource-intensive sectors (like copper or cellulose), environmental degradation will likely continue and labor capacities will not advance.
• To steer FDI toward knowledge-intensive sectors and mitigate the risk of becoming a haven for carbon-intensive industries fleeing strict regulations in developed countries, the report suggests designing a system of economic incentives.

APA

Claro, E. (2009). Comercio y el Desarrollo. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/tkn_trade_chile_es.pdf

Chicago

Claro, Edmundo. Comercio y el Desarrollo. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/tkn_trade_chile_es.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Claro |first1=Edmundo |title=Comercio y el Desarrollo |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2009 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/tkn_trade_chile_es.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{claro2009comercio, author = {Claro, Edmundo}, title = {{Comercio y el Desarrollo}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2009}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/tkn_trade_chile_es.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }