MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile seeks stronger regional ties

Chile intends to expand regional trade agreements and hopes to fix bruised relations with neighbour Argentina after a spat over natural gas, Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said yesterday.

Regional trade relations have taken on an added importance for Chile after the failure last week of negotiations for a global free trade agreement by the World Trade Organization, Foxley said.

"We are going to continue now to seek multiple associations with countries that are willing to do so," Foxley told correspondents.

He said Chile wants to sign free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru in the coming months. A negotiating team is headed to Lima this week.

Foxley said Chile wants strong relations with Peru, with whom Chile has a coloured history of diplomatic spats.

Last year, relations cooled after drunken Chilean teenagers sprayed an ancient Inca monument with graffiti, and after Peru revived a dormant claim on a piece of Chilean fishing territory.

"The Chilean government wants to build a permanent, stable relationship that allows us to take advantage of new opportunities in the rest of the world together with Peru," Foxley said.

Chile and Peru both want booming Asian economies like China's, and South American powerhouses like Brazil's, to use their Pacific ports as throughways to each other's markets.

"Despite the apparently failed Doha (WTO) round, there are countries who are eager to move forward, without hesitating for a minute, in the opening of markets," Foxley said.

Foxley also said Chile wanted to fix strained ties with Argentina, until recently a close ally in the region and its chief supplier of natural gas.

Argentina surprised Chile last week with a higher-than-expected hike in the price it charges for natural gas exports, sparking outrage among Chileans and a letter of complaint from President Michelle Bachelet.

The gas rate hike was particularly irksome because of friendly gestures Bachelet has made to Argentina since taking office in March. Her first trip abroad as president was to Argentina.

"We hope to return as soon as possible to the path we took at the start of President Bachelet's government," Foxley said.