Modernized Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement

Backgrounder

Originally signed on December 5, 1996, and implemented on July 5, 1997, the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) is a comprehensive agreement that covers trade in goods and services, as well as the bilateral investment relationship. The CCFTA was Canada’s first free trade agreement (FTA) with a South American country, while for Chile, it was the first comprehensive FTA concluded with any country.

The CCFTA is the cornerstone of Canada’s strong and growing trade and investment relationship with Chile. Since its launch in 1997, the CCFTA has brought benefits to both countries: bilateral merchandise trade more than tripled in the last 20 years, reaching almost $2.4 billion in 2016.

The modernized CCFTA will add a dedicated chapter on trade and gender—a first for Canada and any G20 nation.

Canada and Chile have also updated other important elements of the agreement by adding new chapters on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and on technical barriers to trade, as well as making technical amendments to the existing government procurement chapter.

Amendments to the investment chapter of the FTA reaffirmed Canada’s and Chile’s commitment to globally endorse corporate social responsibility standards, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which provides guidelines to enterprises with respect to the environment, community relations, labour, human rights and anti-corruption. And it increased transparency obligations and provided added provisions to reaffirm the parties’ right to regulate in the public interest.

All of the amendments mentioned above will enter into force once both Canada and Chile have completed their respective domestic implementation processes.

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