Foreign Minister presided over the first meeting of the Interministerial Committee for International Economic Negotiations

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Ampuero, presided today over the first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for International Economic Negotiations. Also participating in the event were the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, Gonzalo Blumel; the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, José Ramón Valente; the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt; the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Isabel Pla; and the Director General of International Economic Relations (Direcon), Rodrigo Yáñez.

The function of this committee is to advise and propose to the President of the Republic specific policies related to international economic negotiations.

On this occasion, the different agreements currently being negotiated by Chile were discussed, such as the Free Trade Agreement with Brazil, the modernisation of the association agreement with the European Union, the deepening of the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea and the agreements of the Pacific Alliance with the Associated States.

They also discussed contingency issues such as the trade war and analyzed the role that Chile will play as host of APEC 2019, stressing that it will be a unique opportunity to show the country's cultural, social and geographic wealth to all members of the forum. On the occasion it was proposed the creation of an APEC Chile 2019 Inter-ministerial Committee, whose objective will be to advise Direcon in the conduct of the process related to the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of actions associated with the organization of the Forum.