CHILE | Mining royalty. A joint congressional committee last week rejected the Piñera administration's proposal for an increase in the mining royalty worth US$600m to help finance post-earthquake reconstruction. The executive offered to increase the royalty to US$1bn and also to send more of the resources to the regions, but it failed to win over the opposition Concertación, which accuses it of trading future flexibility for short-term gain by promising mining companies that royalties would remain unchanged until 2025. The government spokesman, Ena von Baer, accused Concertación congressmen of turning their backs on victims of the earthquake and the regions.
Higher copper prices drove economic growth in the first half of this year. The state copper commission, Cochilco, said copper averaged US$3.23 a pound over this period versus US$1.84 a pound in the first half of 2009. Chile posted a trade surplus of US$7.93bn in the first half of 2010, up 22.3% on the same period of 2009, the central bank reported. Exports climbed 33.5% to US$32.56bn; imports by 37.5% to US$24.63bn.
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