Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Chile to complain to Argentina over new trade barriers

The Chilean media has begun echoing their government’s current uneasiness about the new local trade barriers that became effective last February 1st, which increase the complexity of importing goods into the country.

Lawmakers from the Alliance and Coordination party asked Sebastián Piñera to file a formal complaint to local Domestic Trade secretary Guillermo Moreno through Ambassador Adolfo Zaldívar. 

The head of the Economy Chamber committee, Gonzalo Arenas (UDI) told a Chilean newspaper that they could “call over the ambassador so he can give us his opinion about the lack of reciprocity between Chile and Argentina in a joint Economy, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs committee,” he said, and assured that there is some sort of unfair competition going on “because of the Argentine market’s distortion.”

Chilean lawmakers are concerned about their farming and steel sectors, which they consider could be most affected by the new trade legislation. They claim that “these protectionism policies create uneasiness and threaten the free market and the principles of the international free market,” for which they are already considering reciprocal measures. 

They have already told Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno that this should be “a fundamental issue in the government’s agenda” when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner arrives in Chile next month to meet with her counterpart Sebastián Piñera.

Ambassador Zaldívar also confirmed he would let the Government House of the “inconveniences” that the new measures have created. 

He is expected to make the claim next 6 o 7 of March, when he is scheduled to meet with Domestic Trade secretary Guillermo Moreno.

The diplomat said that they believe these new measures pose a “serious” problem for the model of productive integration that both countries are trying to implement.