About the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
On February 5th, 2019, the Amending Agreements to the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) entered into force. These Amending Agreements modernize the existing CCFTA in order to better support an open and inclusive rules-based trading environment. This modernization represents a historic achievement for Canada – for the first time a Canadian free trade agreement will include a stand-alone chapter on trade and gender. This development is tangible evidence of the strong, progressive and feminist approach the Government of Canada brings to all aspects of its foreign policy.
This progress is matched by steps forward in other sections of the agreement with new chapters on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and technical barriers to trade, as well as improvements to the existing investment chapter, bringing this chapter in line with some of Canada’s most recent trade agreements, and technical amendments to the existing government procurement chapter.
The CCFTA was Canada’s first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with a South American Country. Since its entry into force in 1997, Canada and Chile have taken multiple steps to broaden and modernize the CCFTA. This includes several updates to the tariff phase-out periods for select products (in 1999, 2001 and 2004) in order to accelerate the elimination of tariffs between Canada and Chile, as well as updates to the applicable rules of origin for products. In 2008, a new government procurement chapter came into force, and in 2010, Canada and Chile signed a Note of Interpretation on Indirect Expropriation. In 2013, a new financial services chapter and updates to the government procurement, dispute settlement and customs procedures entered into force.
In addition to the CCFTA, Canada and Chile are partners in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) entered into force on December 30, 2018 for Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore; Chile still has to complete its ratification process. Canada and Chile are also both partners in the ongoing negotiations, launched in October 2017, toward a Canada-Pacific Alliance Free Trade Agreement.
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