PLURILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE IMPACT ON LDCs – TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE?

The document examines Chile's trade policy, highlighting its preference for bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) over certain plurilateral agreements. It details Chile's strategic shift toward services trade to compensate for a diminished manufacturing base and analyzes the economic rationale behind its participation in the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and its non-participation in the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), and Information Technology Agreement (ITA-II).

• Chile has adopted a trade strategy based on unilateral market opening, bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs), and multilateral participation, maintaining a stable unilateral tariff rate of 6% since 2003.
• Due to the decline of its non-competitive manufacturing sector following early liberalisation, Chile is aggressively pursuing services trade as a core economic development strategy, with the services sector contributing 63% to its GDP.
• Chile participates in the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) to align its multilateral commitments with its stronger FTA commitments and to expand its services sector, which has grown by 250% since 1995.
• Chile declines participation in the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and the Information Technology Agreement (ITA-II) because its existing FTAs already provide superior market access and lower tariffs than these plurilateral agreements offer.
• Chile is not engaged in the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) plurilateral negotiations, viewing it as too focused on tariff reduction; instead, it pursues environmental goals through domestic policies and the APEC forum, where it supports a 5% tariff limit on 54 environmental goods.
• GTAP CGE modelling indicates that Chile would see minimal real gains from joining the GPA or ITA-II, and would actually experience a welfare gain of 0.52% by NOT joining the EGA compared to a 0.22% decline if it did join.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2018). PLURILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE IMPACT ON LDCs – TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE? https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/saia_spr_plurilaterals_Chile-Case-Study_201680306.pdf

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. PLURILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE IMPACT ON LDCs – TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE? 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/saia_spr_plurilaterals_Chile-Case-Study_201680306.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=PLURILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE IMPACT ON LDCs – TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE? |date=February 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/saia_spr_plurilaterals_Chile-Case-Study_201680306.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2018plurilateral, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{PLURILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE IMPACT ON LDCs – TO PARTICIPATE OR NOT TO PARTICIPATE?}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/saia_spr_plurilaterals_Chile-Case-Study_201680306.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }