Under Foreign Minister's Muñoz own initiative, a committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by Secretary of the State himself along with General Director of Economic Relations, Andres Rebolledo, today representatives of the committee "A Better Chile Without TPP" were given an audience in order to exchange points of view on the Transpacific Agreement" (TPP).
During the event, Minister Muñoz signaled that Chile's decision to enter the Transpacific Agreement goes along with Chile's international economic policy, implemented over the past 25 years, which aims to strengthen commercial ties in order to generate more prosperity and employment.
With regards to this, Minister Muñoz explained that when President Bachelet took power in 2014, and considering the lack of information that existed about this negotiation process, emanated from the General Direction of International Economic Relations what has been called as the "Side Room" where more than 100 meetings have been held with 120 public and private organizations, as well as civil society representatives, in order to explain the details of the negotiation and the subsequent process.
In this context, Minister Muñoz said that "a balanced and favorable agreement has been achieved". He also said that "we wouldn't have subscribed to an agreement that does not protect our interests properly nor that would affect our sovereignty. Now it's up to the National Congress to make a decision"
During the event, the representatives of "A better Chile without TPP" expressed their preoccupation about the results of the negotiation process of the TPP. Their main concern was about the access to medicine, copyright, Indigenous People's right, among other topics. At the same time, they criticized the development model adopted by Chile in terms of its integration in the international community during the last decades. Minister Muñoz, on his behalf, answered to all the questions formulated by the attendees, emphasizing his conviction that Chile will be able to reach a balanced and beneficial agreement for our economy.
Finally, Minister Muñoz said that in the following months the Government will send a legislative proposal to Congress in conformity with the agenda set by the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency. He manifested his disposition to continue the discussion with all the civil society actors, especially with regional representatives.
It´s worth mentioning that The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a plurilateral trade agreement. The treaty was signed in New Zealand on February 4th by representatives of 12 countries. The agreement represents today 40 percent of the global investments and 25 per cent of international commerce.