Chilean chancellor in Brasília to talk trade, cooperation

Chile’s Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera will have a work meeting with Brazilian Chancellor Ernesto Araújo in Brasília on Thursday (Sep 5). The ministers will discuss topics on the bilateral agenda, like trade and investment, fighting transnational crime, scientific and technological cooperation, and cooperation in Antarctica.

Also to be debated are regional issues, like integration in South America, joint efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela and fight wildfire in the Amazon, and the implementation of the Central Bi-Oceanic railway connecting Porto Murtinho, a town in the Brazilian Mato Grosso do Sul state, to ports in northern Chile.

Furthermore, the agenda is expected to include closer ties between Mercosur (Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay) and the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia, with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Singapore as candidates). The Pacific Alliance is the second biggest economic bloc in Latin America in exports, preceded only by Mercosur.

Brazil is Chile’s biggest partner in South America, and Chile is Brazil’s second biggest commercial partner in the region. In 2018, the commercial exchange between the two stood at $9.8 billion. Brazil has the largest amount of foreign investment from Chile—over $35 billion. Brazil’s investments in Chile, on the other hand, add up to $4.5 billion.

*With information from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs