Weekly Report - 10 July 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

PERU-CHILE | FTA ratified. “Bilateral relations go far beyond a maritime border dispute." That was the response of Peru's foreign trade minister, Mercedes Aráoz, to the Chilean senate's unanimous ratification of a bilateral FTA last week. The senate postponed approval of the FTA in January, days after Peru filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague to define its shared maritime border with Chile. The FTA expands upon an existing Economic Complementation Agreement which was signed 10 years ago. It should result in increased investment as well as trade in services and the activation of a dispute resolution mechanism. The approval of the FTA comes shortly before Peru hosts an important summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), in which both countries will try to deepen the Pacific Arc integration initiative proposed by Peru's President Alan Garcí­a and his Chilean peer Michelle Bachelet at the Apec summit in Sydney in September [WR-07-37].

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