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Breaking: UK and Chile sign trade agreement
The UK and Chilean governments have announced they have signed a trade continuity agreement, in what is being hailed as a major positive for the wine industry.
The agreement ensures that post the UK’s departure from the European Union the two countries will continue to enjoy uninterrupted and “beneficial” trading arrangements.
The agreement was signed by Her Majesty’s ambassador to Chile, Jamie Bowden, and the Chilean Foreign Minister, Roberto Ampuero, in Santiago this Wednesday (30 Janaury).
The government press release added that it expects to sign “a number of other arrangements…in the coming weeks.”
The trading relationship between the UK and Chile is worth nearly £2 billion and grew 11% in 2017. Trade in goods and services between the two countries has grown 9% per year on average since 2003 when the agreement was first instituted.
UK exports to Chile have grown on average 16% year-on-year and a total increase of 351% in the last 16 years.
Chilean fruits, nuts and especially wines are an extremely important part of this trade, with UK customers buying the equivalent of over 100 million bottles of Chilean wine worth over £700m in the last 12 months.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association welcomed the news, and said in a statement: It is imperative for the UK wine industry that trade with Chile remains undisrupted. In the last 12 months UK consumers bought the equivalent of 105 million bottles of Chilean wine with sales worth some £720 million. That amounts to about 9% of the total UK still wine sales by volume and 8% by value.
The agreement avoids unnecessary tariffs which will ultimately save consumers money. Without this agreement tariffs added to wine from Chile coming to the UK would cost industry an estimated £9.2 million.”
The agreement will also protect intellectual property rights and maintains preferential market access for trade in services.
Ambassador Bowden commented: The UK and Chile enjoy a long-lasting trade relationship. The UK is still working to achieve an agreement with the European Union on the terms of our departure. The success of those talks will determine whether the current EU-Chile agreement ceases to apply to the UK at the end of March this year, or at the end of an Implementation Period.
“In either scenario, the agreement we have signed today means that there will be no disruption to UK-Chile trade as the UK leaves the EU.”