A meeting of Joint Study Group between Chile & Turkey was held in the last month of July 2007 in Santiago, Chile. The main purpose was to evaluate the feasibility of negotiating an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between the two countries. In this group meeting the Chilean Delegation was headed by Mr. Andrés Rebolledo, Director-Economic & Bilateral Affairs and the Turkey side was presided over by Mr. Cemalettin Damlaci, Director General of European Union Affairs from the office of the Secretary of Foreign Trade.
These meetings for studying this possibility of an FTA between Chile & Turkey consider the other elements for the analysis besides the element of market access.
It goes without saying that Turkey is an industrial country. Huge network of modern companies, use of high technology, a competitive internationalization and other important factors make Turkey an entry level door to access the markets of South Eastern Europe, Russia and Middle East.
This country is a part of WTO since March 26, 1995 and also a member of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development). In the last month of May 2007, Chile has been formally invited to be a permanent member with OECD.
The second round of meetings will be held in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey between October 25-26, 2007. Chile sees Turkey as a new allied partner in international trade and seeks to establish strong relations with such an important economy composed of 70 million of population, a GDP of more than US$ 400 thousand million, strongly placed among the list of 17 global economies and still growing steady with an annual growth of more than 5 % as registered in the present decade. |
