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Chile has continued to reform and liberalize its already open trade
and investment regime, both unilaterally and reciprocally. This and the
sound macro-economic policies applied help to explain the resilience of
the economy in the face of various external shocks, according to a
report on the trade policies and practices of Chile released 4 December
by the WTO Secretariat.
The report says that since 1997, Chile’s average applied MFN tariff has
fallen from 11% to 6%, and that trade plays and increasingly important
role in Chile’s economy. The report stresses that the uniform treatment
of all sectors of the economic activity remains a key-feature of Chile’s
policies, as witnessed by an almost uniform applied MFN tariff, the
absence of significant programmes to assist specific activities, and the
granting of national treatment to foreign investors in all but a few
cases.
But the report also adds that the increased number of Chile’s
preferential trade agreements has reduced the share of Chilean trade
conduced under MFN conditions. Distortions might also arise from the use
of a price band system to protect a handful of agricultural products and
of export support schemes, says the report.
The
following documents are available in MS Word format.
Note
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Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements,
in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and
evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have
an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each
review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the
government of the member under review, and a detailed report written
independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then
discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body
(TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are
published shortly afterwards.
Print
copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the
WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211
Genève 21 and through the on-line
bookshop.
The
TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.
Schedule of forthcoming reviews
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Turkey: 17, 19 December 2003
United States: 14 and 16 of January 2004
Gambia: 4 and 6 of February 2004
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