EFTA and Chile conclude negotiations on the modernisation of their free trade agreement

Member States of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) and Chile convened for the seventh round of negotiations in Santiago de Chile from 16 to 19 January 2024 and concluded the negotiations on the modernisation of the existing EFTA-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Erik Andreas Underland, Specialist Director in the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, acted as the EFTA spokesperson during the negotiation process. Sebastián Gómez, Director General of Bilateral Economic Affairs at the Undersecretariat for International Economic Affairs, headed the Chilean delegation.

The EFTA-Chile FTA entered into force in 2004, and the modernisation process was initiated in 2019. The EFTA States and Chile managed to conclude an ambitious and comprehensive Agreement, modernising trade in goods, trade in services including financial services, intellectual property rights and government procurement. The updated FTA will further include chapters on trade and sustainable development, digital trade and, for the first time in EFTA’s history, a chapter on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A chapter-by-chapter factsheet is available here.

Economic relations between the EFTA States and Chile

Bilateral EFTA–Chile merchandise trade reached almost EUR 847 million in 2022. EFTA’s main exports to Chile were pharmaceutical products, machinery and mechanical appliances, ships, boats and floating structures, precision instruments (optical, medical, surgical), and watches. For the same year, imports from Chile consisted mainly of chemicals, fruits and nuts, fats and oils, beverages and spirits, and animal feed.

Read more about merchandise trade between EFTA and Chile here.