[CTC] U.S. wants to keep TPP standards in bilateral deals: Chilean ambassador

[Arthur Stamoulis]

INSIDE US TRADE

U.S. wants to keep TPP standards in bilateral deals: Chilean ambassador

March 23, 2017 

The United States is interested in integrating into bilateral trade agreements some standards negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to Chile’s ambassador to the United States.

“We understand that TPP is not anymore in existence if the United States is not there in the agreement,” Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes told reporters at a March 23 press lunch hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council. “But we also understand that the TPP has established high standards and disciplines that are shared by all the participants in the negotiation and that the United States would like to continue to include in its bilateral treaties in the future.”

Valdes added that the initial “uncertainty” and “perplexity” in Latin America regarding the Trump administration’s trade policy is beginning to dissipate “because we believe that we have received signs that the U.S. is interested in developing relationships and treaties that can maintain the same standards and the same basic disciplines that were included in previous treaties. This is extremely important to us.”

President Trump and Chile’s president Michelle Bachelet exchanged positive views on the U.S.-Chile FTA during a March 19 call, Valdes said. According to data that includes goods and services, the U.S. in 2014 had a $9.6 billion trade surplus with Chile.

And while Chile would likely not be open to a total autopsy of its FTA with the U.S., it is willing to discuss digital issues, Valdes said. He noted that there is already an annual review procedure built into the FTA that allows minor tweaks to take place.

The two countries are also in the process of arranging a meeting for the last weekend of April between Chile’s Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz Valenzuela, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and National Security Adviser H.R. McMasters, potentially along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The Trump administration has stated a preference to pursue bilateral trade agreements as opposed to deals involving multiple countries, at odds with the general approach the region seems set on embracing <https://insidetrade.com/node/157945> following a meeting in Chile last week.

Valdes throughout his remarks endorsed a regional approach to trade, noting that the Pacific Alliance made up of Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia is now open to negotiating trade agreements as a bloc <https://insidetrade.com/node/157935>, and plans to do so with Singapore and New Zealand in addition to its intent on holding talks with Mercosur -- which is composed of Argentina Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela -- in early April.

Asked if the Pacific Alliance bloc has considered negotiating a deal with the U.S., Valdes said that has not been discussed but is not “inconceivable.”

He added that the U.S. is currently an observer to the Pacific Alliance and in that regard the bloc and the United States are working together to further integrate businesses.

On the TPP front, ministers from the 11 remaining countries have agreed to meet on the sidelines of the APEC trade ministers meeting in Vietnam in May, and Valdes also revealed that a subsequent meeting in Canada is being planned as well.

Ministers from the 11 remaining TPP countries met during the meeting in Chile <https://insidetrade.com/node/157940> last week to begin discussing a path forward for the agreement now that the U.S. has withdrawn.

Adding additional countries is one concept ministers are weighing, sources said, and Valdes signaled support for that route, noting that in his view Colombia, for example, should have been part of TPP negotiations from the get-go.

The ultimate goal, Valdes added, must be getting the U.S. back into the deal.

But in the meantime, U.S. withdrawal from the deal has encouraged a “new space of association between Latin American countries,” Valdes said.

In that vein, he said that if NAFTA renegotiation talks go sour between the U.S. and Mexico there are few agriculture products that Mexico could alternatively buy from the region.

“Mexico is so linked in agricultural tariffs to the United States, a change in the rules in which Latin American countries seem to Mexico more interesting in terms of agricultural exports. Most of the things that Mexico buys here they could buy in Argentina or in Chile or in Brazil. This could not necessarily be good for the United States of course.” -- Jack Caporal (jcaporal at iwpnews.com <mailto:jcaporal at iwpnews.com>)
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