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Breaking: UK and Chile sign trade agreement
The UK and Chilean governments have announced they have signed a trade continuity agreement, in what is being hailed as a major positive for the wine industry.
The agreement ensures that post the UK’s departure from the European Union the two countries will continue to enjoy uninterrupted and “beneficial” trading arrangements.
The agreement was signed by Her Majesty’s ambassador to Chile, Jamie Bowden, and the Chilean Foreign Minister, Roberto Ampuero, in Santiago this Wednesday (30 Janaury).
The government press release added that it expects to sign “a number of other arrangements…in the coming weeks.”
The trading relationship between the UK and Chile is worth nearly £2 billion and grew 11% in 2017. Trade in goods and services between the two countries has grown 9% per year on average since 2003 when the agreement was first instituted.
UK exports to Chile have grown on average 16% year-on-year and a total increase of 351% in the last 16 years.
Chilean fruits, nuts and especially wines are an extremely important part of this trade, with UK customers buying the equivalent of over 100 million bottles of Chilean wine worth over £700m in the last 12 months.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association welcomed the news, and said in a statement: It is imperative for the UK wine industry that trade with Chile remains undisrupted. In the last 12 months UK consumers bought the equivalent of 105 million bottles of Chilean wine with sales worth some £720 million. That amounts to about 9% of the total UK still wine sales by volume and 8% by value.
The agreement avoids unnecessary tariffs which will ultimately save consumers money. Without this agreement tariffs added to wine from Chile coming to the UK would cost industry an estimated £9.2 million.”
The agreement will also protect intellectual property rights and maintains preferential market access for trade in services.
Ambassador Bowden commented: The UK and Chile enjoy a long-lasting trade relationship. The UK is still working to achieve an agreement with the European Union on the terms of our departure. The success of those talks will determine whether the current EU-Chile agreement ceases to apply to the UK at the end of March this year, or at the end of an Implementation Period.
“In either scenario, the agreement we have signed today means that there will be no disruption to UK-Chile trade as the UK leaves the EU.”
Great news but we need the same with the USA, Argentina, South Africa and the biggest of all ——Europe!
Good on Chile!
The much larger deal with the EFTA states has already been done.This though has little impact on wine – Norway and Iceland not being noted producers and Switzerland being a net importer.
Canada, Aus, NZ are in the pipeline. USA, Argentina and er Europe will be a bit more problematic!
Can I correct my previous post?
The Continuation Trade deal with EFTA has not yet been done. Only Switzerland, by far the most important of the EFTA countries has signed. The other EFTA counties are all in the EEA and have not yet signed and although discussions are well underway, are probably unlikely to sign by the end of March. The deal that has been signed with EFTA concerns all the other aspects of the relationship such as citizen’s rights etc.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be the next to sign, probably very shortly, then hopefully Canada and South Korea.
Discussions with Moldova, Georgia and Lebanon – all noted wine producers – are I understand being handled by the FCO not the DfT and are “significantly off track” for delivery by end March.