January 26, 2022 – The signing of the Joint Declaration with Singapore, which seeks to deepen cooperation in areas of common interest that contribute to the free movement of goods, services, capital and people, took place in Bahia Malaga, venue of the XVI Summit of the Pacific Alliance.

According to the Joint Declaration, the Pacific Alliance and Singapore will identify opportunities in areas such as investment, trade and tourism, digital economy, trade facilitation measures, culture, economy/inclusive growth, among others.

The document was signed by the Foreign Minister of Chile, Andrés Allamand; the Vice President and Foreign Minister of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez; the Minister of Commerce of Colombia, María Ximena Lombana; the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard; the Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Tatiana Clouthier; the Foreign Minister of Peru, Óscar Maúrtua, and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru, Roberto Sánchez.

See the statement here

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• The Asian country is about to become the first Associated State of the integration bloc.

January 26, 2022 – In the framework of the XVI Summit of Presidents of the Pacific Alliance, the Trade ministers of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, on the one hand, and that of Singapore, on the other, signed the Free Trade Agreement, whose negotiations ended in July 2021.

This instrument must now comply with the procedures before the legislative bodies of each of the countries, and in the case of Colombia, it must subsequently pass to the endorsement of the Constitutional Court.

The Agreement includes 25 chapters in disciplines such as: market access for goods, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, economic and customs cooperation, trade facilitation, investment, e-commerce, cross-border trade in services, maritime services, telecommunications, temporary entry of business persons, state-owned enterprises, public procurement, competition policy, good regulatory practices, gender, SMEs and legal and institutional matters.

The signing of this Agreement marks a milestone for this integration initiative because Singapore will become the first Associated State of the Pacific Alliance.

The negotiations with the Asian economy complement the trade relationship, encourage the attraction of investments, facilitate government procurement contracts and enhance the access of service providers to a wide range of sectors.

It also opens the door to cooperation in various areas such as energy, food trade, the digital economy, infrastructure and urban solutions, port management and logistics, and the interoperability of Foreign Trade Single Windows.

Reaching the Singapore market through this trade agreement will allow the countries of the Alliance to use regional inputs from different countries enhancing regional production chains. It is expected to attract investors from that country to the extended market of the bloc as a productive and export platform to the region.

The Pacific Alliance is made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. It has a population of 230 million, a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 19,000 and exports of USD 627 billion. This makes the group the eighth largest exporter in the world. The Asian country became an Observer State of the Pacific Alliance in 2014 and a candidate for Associate State in 2017. Negotiations for a Trade Agreement were finalized in July 2021, after four years of deliberations.

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December 13, 2021.- With the aim of providing concrete tools to support SMEs in the various issues involving intellectual property in export processes, last Friday the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Pacific Alliance launched the project «Supporting SMEs in the countries of the Pacific Alliance with tools that allow them to make better use of Intellectual Property».

The launch was led by WIPO’s Deputy Assistant Director for Intellectual Property and Innovation Ecosystems, Marco Alemán, and the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva. Also in attendance were Angélica Romero, Director General of Multilateral Economic Affairs of SUBREI of Chile; María Paula Arenas, Director of Foreign Investment and Services, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MINCIT) of Colombia; Anel Valencia, Deputy Director General of Support Services, Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) of Mexico; and Mauricio Osorio, Deputy Director of Patent Promotion of the Directorate of Inventions and New Technologies, National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) of Peru.

The project expects to count on the expertise of WIPO and the involvement of experts from PA countries to jointly develop materials and inputs that will enable SMEs to understand the importance of intellectual property and take advantage of its commercial value, incorporating educational materials, models and resources adapted for these purposes.

This cooperation between WIPO and the Pacific Alliance is the first cooperation activity between WIPO and the Alliance, and arises from a proposal submitted by Chile in 2019 during its pro tempore presidency.

December 13, 2021.- As part of the schedule of activities that has been jointly designed between the countries of the Pacific Alliance, during the pro tempore presidency of Colombia, the ambassadors of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru participated in the dialogue «China and the Pacific Alliance: Regional Cooperation for the Next Decade» of the Center for China and Globalization – CCG – , in order to present this regional integration mechanism in China, an observer country and strategic partner. Within this framework, the initiative, its objectives, its performance within the global economy, as well as its main achievements in its first decade of conformation and its strategic vision for the year 2030 were presented. In addition, the synergies between the countries of the bloc to continue consolidating their product offerings and the strengths of their economies to penetrate this market and jointly face common challenges were presented.

The Pacific Alliance is the eighth largest economic power and the eighth largest exporter in the world. The four countries have a population of 230 million people and offer competitive advantages for international business, with a clear orientation towards the Asia-Pacific region, with China as a priority market, with which, in recent years, thanks to the power of integration, there has been a steady and progressive growth in trade exchanges.

CCG is a Chinese non-governmental think tank with consultative status of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is among the top 50 independent think tanks in the world. It has more than 10 branches and more than 100 full-time researchers dedicated to the study of globalization, international relations, migration and trade, and international economics, among other topics.

The dialogue was broadcast on Chinese and international platforms and can be relived at the following links:

http://www.ccg.org.cn/archives/67057
https://youtu.be/bV1f1iEU_Ak

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December 10, 2021.- The Pacific Alliance presented this Friday the Shared Virtual Training Portal, a space aimed at acquiring the necessary job skills for the tourism sector, digital and linguistic skills, as well as essential competencies for other areas, such as trade and marketing and entrepreneurship, in order to promote the reactivation of the region.

Adela Maestre, representing the pro tempore presidency of Colombia, emphasized the importance of strengthening tourism activity, given its sharp decline both in the PA countries and on a global scale as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the purposes of this new platform.

«It is achievements like these that give meaning to integration and allow our citizens to feel that the efforts made by governments translate into concrete benefits for them,» added Maestre.

The initiative was led by the Technical Labor Group (GTL) with the support of the European Union Program for Social Cohesion in Latin America – EUROsociAL.

Janet Ortega, GTL Coordinator, also stressed that, with this platform, «we want to promote the strengthening of the employability of the region’s workers and thus ensure that they are prepared to adapt to a changing labor market, favoring, when necessary, their labor mobility and with it, their social welfare».

To learn more about the platform just click here:

https://capacitacion.alianzapacifico.net/

November 29, 2021.- With the slogan «Economic and sustainable reactivation of the region: contributions of international cooperation», the III Cooperation Forum of the Pacific Alliance was held on Monday, a space for dialogue and exchange of knowledge and experiences with the Observer States of the bloc, other regional blocs and allies such as the Inter-American Development Bank, with the purpose of promoting and stimulating cooperation in the context of the post-pandemic.

The forum, which was held virtually, had the opening words of the Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs, María Carmelina Londoño, as representative of the pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance, who emphasized the priority that economic reactivation means for the PA countries and the fundamental role of international cooperation in fulfilling this purpose. «International cooperation is one of the fundamental pillars of the PA and contributes significantly to the achievement of a more global Alliance,» said the Vice Minister.

During the Forum, five dialogue tables were held on the topics of gender and women’s economic empowerment; environment and sustainability; creative industries; economic recovery with emphasis on the tourism sector; and disaster risk reduction. The dialogue tables served as a space for the technical bodies of the Pacific Alliance and experts from the Observer States to exchange views and share experiences that can contribute to the resolution of a regional need identified in each of the tables.

«We are sure that this space will be conducive to generate exchanges of experiences and good practices, for the benefit of our countries and at the same time, explore the possibility of sharing our experiences as a bloc and promote relevant issues by deepening cooperation relations with allies and partners with whom we meet today,» concluded Vice Minister Londoño.

Also speaking at the opening of the III Cooperation Forum were the Deputy Minister of International Trade of Canada, John Hannaford; the Executive Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, Javier Niño; the Deputy Director General for the Americas of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ambassador Yurii Diudin, and the Director of Supply of the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia (APC Colombia), Catalina Quintero. The closing and conclusions were in charge of the Director of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Álvaro Calderón Ponce de León.

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November 16, 2021.- Within the framework of the Meeting of the High Level Group of the Pacific Alliance (PA), which was held in person in Viña del Mar (Chile), the Public-Private Dialogue: Principles of Good Practices in International Regulatory Cooperation was held, with the participation of the four vice ministers of Foreign Trade of the bloc and representatives of the private sector.

The Dialogue began with the launch of the publication «International Regulatory Cooperation» of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), presented by Nick Malyshev, head of the OECD’s Regulatory Policy Division, who also participated in the Dialogue.

The PA authorities Rodrigo Yánez, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of Chile; Andrés Cárdenas Muñoz, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Colombia; Luz María de la Mora, Undersecretary of Foreign Trade of Mexico; and Diego Llosa, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Peru, highlighted the importance of sharing with the private sector the actions taken by the Pacific Alliance in regulatory matters as a tool to facilitate intra-PA trade and also to have the support of an entity such as the OECD to monitor the implementation of the regulatory annexes negotiated by the bloc.

The private sector was represented by Manuel José Prieto of the Federation of Chilean Industry (Sofofa) and Paolo Mazza Forno, president of the Chilean Sanitation and Disinfection Association (Asociación Gremial de Aseo y Desinfección de Chile). Industry representatives from the PA countries were also present virtually.

In his speech, Andrés Cárdenas Muñoz, representing the pro tempore presidency of the bloc, pointed out that the harmonization of technical requirements brings enormous benefits for the entrepreneurs of the four countries, such as lower production costs; a predictable commercial environment through clear provisions; safe, high-quality products; increased competitiveness; and closer ties and greater coordination between the authorities of the Alliance countries.

Additionally, during the Dialogue the vice ministers also addressed new issues of e-commerce regulations, fintech, last mile and services regulation.

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