Thailand and Chile’s ministries of agriculture have signed off on two cooperation agreements that will help pave the way towards the ratification of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
According to a report by Chilean news provider LaInformacion, the cooperation agreements laid out criteria to promote the exchange of technology and knowledge and help establish sanitary and phytosanitary protocols.
Chile’s minister of agriculture Luis Mayol Bouchon said Thailand represented a good market for a number of the country’s products, including fresh fruit.
"We have different climates, we are in different hemispheres, and therefore have different products, so we do not compete with Thailand but we complement each other," said Mayol Bouchon.
He added that an FTA would likely be signed either by the end of this year, or in early 2013.
Chile is committed to developing trade with Asia and already has FTA’s with China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. It is also negotiating an agreement with Indonesia.
