Chilean trade chief visits Seoul to share ‘flavors of Chile’


Chile was the first country with which Korea signed a free trade pact, back in 2003. Amid a 4.5-fold growth in trade volume between the two countries, the Chile FTA has paved the way for Korea to seek new deals with other countries in recent years.

For Chile, Korea, especially its agricultural sector, is still one of the hardest markets to enter, said Felix de Vicente, chairman of Chile’s Export Promotion Bureau.

“We make jokes that if we want to introduce to Korea 50 percent of our products that we export to advanced markets such as the U.S. and Europe, it would take almost 50 years,” the Chilean trade chief said Thursday in an interview with The Korea Herald.

“But that is also why many Chilean business people are very interested in the Korean market.”

He was visiting Korea to host the “Flavors of Chile,” an annual event that travels around the world to promote Chile’s agricultural and other industry sectors and ends with a grand Chilean banquet served by renowned chef Pilar Rodriguez.

During the two-day Seoul conference held on Thursday and Friday at the Hotel Shilla, some 50 Chilean businesspeople are joining to discuss the future of Chile’s energy and agricultural sectors and holding bilateral business meetings directly with Korean buyers.

The trade chief said that Chile also suffered from social resistance in the early days of opening the market even though the country is now considered a global free trade hub, having inked 22 free trade pacts with 59 countries.

“But 25 years after opening the economy, we realize that we are making our companies more competitive, and less competitive ones are required to change,” de Vicente said.

The Export Promotion Bureau, commonly called “ProChile,” operates some 50 offices globally to support business activities of Chilean companies. The bureau chief took office two years ago.

He pointed out that the FTA with Korea was one of the successful examples where two countries complement each other’s competitive sectors. Korea imports mostly raw materials from Chile such as copper, iron, wine and pork while exporting cars and electric devices.

Although there was early resistance from Korean farmers, the agricultural sector made up just 5 percent of the total imports from Chile last year.

In June, President Lee Myung-bak and his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera declared the Korea-Chile FTA was entering a new chapter, pledging to strengthen ties in more sectors such as renewable energy, mineral development and education.

According to the de Vicente, Chile plans to step up efforts to promote its abundant natural resources such as copper and lithium in Korea and globally. In particular, the demand for lithium is expected to surge for use in batteries for electric cars.

Chile, which has seen power costs soar, also hopes to share Korea’s advanced technology related to smart grids, a solution for electricity suppliers to better monitor their clients’ electricity consumption, he added.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)