A Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between India and Chile will be signed here tomorrow. The Agreement will be signed in the presence of Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, by Shri S.N. Menon, Commerce Secretary, from the Indian side and Mr. Jorge Heine, Ambassador of Chile in India on behalf of the Chilean Government.

During the visit of the Chilean President to India in January 2005, a Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed between India and Chile on January 20, 2005. This Agreement envisaged PTA between the two sides. The Framework Agreement also provided for a Joint Study Group to identify the potential for cooperation between the two countries in trade in goods and services, investments and other areas of economic cooperation.

Chile is one of the major Latin American countries with a GDP of US $ 76.3 billion and a bilateral trade of US $ 53.2 billion during 2004. Its trade surplus was US $ 8.5 billion during the year. Chile is endowed with rich natural resources, is the world's leading producer of copper and its total resources are estimated to represent 25% of world's proven reserves of copper.

Since the early nineties, the Chilean economy has been one of the best performing in Latin America, with an average growth of 5.5% during the period 1990-2003. The growth has been about 6.1% during 2004 and 5.7% during the first six months of 2005. There are no restrictions on imports and exports in Chile.

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