Chilean president says to welcome Vietnam’s exports

HCMC – Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has stressed an open market for goods and services as well as investment opportunities in Chile for Vietnamese businesses, and expected so for Chilean companies in Vietnam as this will enhance cooperation for the two countries to boost their growth.

“I know there are many exporters here and we will welcome Vietnamese exports to the Chilean market, the same way we expect you to welcome Chilean exports to the Vietnamese market,” the Chilean president told the Chile-Vietnam business luncheon in HCMC last Friday.

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera poses for photographers with two Chilean tourists, Acarrize to the left and Mariana to the right, as the dignitary happened to meet them at the War Remnants Museum in HCMC – Photo: Kinh Luan

The luncheon was attended by around 150 participants from government and corporate entities, including representatives of the HCMC government, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) as well as foreign-trade companies of the two countries.

“I would like to emphasize that in Chile we are looking forward to Vietnamese export of goods and services as well as investments,” the Chilean president said.

The Chilean president emphasized the point less than 10 days after the Chilean congress ratified a free trade agreement (FTA) between that country and Vietnam and just over five days before his visit to Vietnam as part of his working trip to Asia – a region that accounts for 48% of Chile’s exports.

The Chilean president and Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang in November 2011 witnessed signing of the FTA on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Honolulu, the United States when they participated in the important event.

Speaking at the business luncheon, the Chilean president pinned high hopes that trade between the country and Vietnam would multiply based on the foundations the two countries had built over the past years.

Figures indicated bilateral trade between Chile and Vietnam soared from just over US$162.3 million in 2006 to more than US$488.6 million last year, with over US$176 million in favor of that country in South America. The two-way trade stood at US$335.8 million in 2010.

Félix de Vicente, director of the Chilean Promotion Bureau, also known as ProChile, told the Chile-Vietnam business forum taking place prior to the luncheon that the Chile-Vietnam commercial exchange had multiplied by 20 times in the last decade. Chile registered an average annual growth of some 40% in exports to Vietnam and 33% in imports from this country in the past five years.

Chile imports footwear, garment, machinery, coffee, seafood, rice, basa catfish and dragon fruit from Vietnam, while it exports copper, beverages, timber among others to this ASEAN country, which is Chile’s 35th trade partner globally. Within ASEAN, Vietnam is the largest target market for Chile’s exports.

Officials of both Chile and Vietnam believed the two-way trade between the two countries would experience tremendous growth and more than double years after the FTA came into effect soon later 2012 as expected following completion of some necessary procedures.

Vicente said the Chile-Vietnam FTA would certainly be “a very significant step” to further strengthen commercial ties between the two countries. This pact covers more that 9,000 products in 21 categories of tax relief for Chilean exports to Vietnam.

“This means that once the agreement enters into force, 73% of Chilean exports will enter the Vietnamese market without tariffs,” de Vicente said.

Nguyen Duy Khien, head of the America department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said at the business forum that under the FTA, Chile committed to eliminate 99.62% of tariff lines (or 100% of Vietnam’s export volume to Chile in 2007) within 10 years. Of which, Chile will remove 83.54% of tariff lines, or 81.8% of Vietnam’s export volume at the effectiveness of the agreement.

Khien said 87.8% of tariff lines (or 91.22% of Chile’s export volume to Vietnam in 2007) would be tax free within 15 years in accordance with the FTA. The remaining tariff lines will be partial reduction (435 tariff lines or 4.75% of the export volume), base rate (309 or 3.37%) and exception (374 or 4.08%).

“The FTA surely creates new great business opportunities for both sides,” Khien said.

At the business forum, de Vicente quoted the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs as saying that “Our task does not end when we sign an agreement, it is only the beginning.”

De Vicente was a member of entourage of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in Vietnam. The president met with Government and Party leaders in Hanoi and HCMC leaders as well as corporate representatives before leaving Vietnam for his working trips in South Korea and Japan.

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