WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/REG230/M/2 
17 January 2012 
 (12-0255) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Sixty-third Session   
 
 
  
CONSIDERATION OF THE ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AGREEMENT  
BETWEEN CHINA AND CHILE, SERVICES  
 
Note on the Meeting of 9 November 2011 
 
Chairman:  Mr. F. Riegert (France) 
 
 
1. The 63rd Session of the Committe e on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/3810/Rev.1 dated 28 October 2011. 
2. Under Agenda Item D.II of this session, th e CRTA considered the Economic Integration 
Agreement between China and Chile (hereinafter the 'Agreement'), services.  
3. The Chairman said that the Agreement had entere d into force on 1 August 2010.  It had been 
notified by the Parties on 18 November 2010 to the WTO under GATS Article V:7(a) as an 
Agreement providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the meaning of Article V of the 
GATS (document S/C/N/577).  The text of the Agreem ent was available, together with its Annexes, 
on the Parties' official websites.  The Factual Presentation on the services aspects (document WT/REG/230/3 dated 19 August 2011) had been prepared by the Secretariat on its own 
responsibility in full consultation with the Parti es, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the 
Transparency Mechanism (TM) fo r Regional Trade Agreements (doc ument WT/L/671).  In addition, 
he informed Members that written questions and re plies on the Agreement had been distributed in 
document WT/REG/230/4, dated 18 October 2011.  He  proposed to organize the consideration of the 
Agreement by first asking the Parties and then ot her Members for general comments.  The Committee 
would then turn to the specifics of the Agreement using the Factual Presentation to guide the debate, 
and then go through the questions and replies document. 
4. The representative of Chile expressed his gratitude  to the Secretariat for its excellent work 
and to his Chinese colleagues for their co-operation throughout the process.  He also thanked all the 
delegations who had expressed an interest in this process, in particular those who had submitted their 
questions in advance and thus contributed to the effectiveness of the review.  He said that the 
Agreement, whose purpose was to deepen bilateral trade liberalization in a way consistent with 
Article V of the GATS, reflected a strong commitment to free trade.  The Agreement was in fact an 
addition to the FTA Chile and China had signed in  November 2005.  He said Chile's policy on 
international trade negotiations was to seek the c onclusion of comprehensive agreements covering a 
wide range of areas in international trade (i.e . trade in goods, services, investment, intellectual 
property, labour issues and competition).  Accordi ngly, the FTA of 2005 between the Parties had been 
designed as a "living agreement" that would in corporate additional trade areas in a progressive 
manner.  In concrete terms, Ar ticle 120 of the FTA between Chile and China contained an explicit 
mandate for negotiations in the area of services.  The Parties had resumed trade negotiations in January 2007 and signed the Agreement on 13 Apr il 2008.  Furthermore, bilateral investment 
negotiations had also been initiated.   Seven rounds of negotiations ha d been completed as of that day WT/REG230/M/2 
Page 2  
 
  and he highlighted the resulting new or improved ma rket access.  On the Chilean side, a total of 
37 sectors and sub-sectors had been further opened up to China, compared to Chile's commitments 
under the GATS, including in legal services, engineer ing, construction and architecture, computing, 
real estate, advertisement, mining, distribution, education, environment, tourism, sports, and air 
transport services.  On the Chinese side, commitments in 22 sectors and sub-sectors had been 
improved or newly added compared to China's commitments under the GATS, including in mining, 
environment, computer, sports, and air transport services.  He said that the Agreement represented a long standing demand of the Chilean business commun ity.  The Chilean private sector had worked 
closely with the negotiating team to ensure that its  specific demands were reflected in the text, and 
had publicly expressed its satisfaction with the resu lts.  Chile was aware of the challenges ahead, in 
terms of substantially increasing services trade flows between the Parties, but was confident that this 
goal would be achieved successfully, as the bus iness communities on both sides continued to 
strengthen their cooperation leading to increasing busin ess activity.  Finally, he said that although his 
delegation had provided written answers to the questi ons presented in advance to the meeting, it stood 
ready to answer additional questions or comments.   
5.  The representative of China expressed gratitude  to the Secretariat for having prepared the 
Factual Presentation of Agreement, which provide d Members and the Committee with the general and 
updated picture of progress made in this area.  He thanked Argentina, Chinese Taipei, Peru as well as 
other Members for showing their interest in the Ag reement and sending their questions in advance.  
He also thanked his Chilean co lleagues for their close and fruitful cooperation during the review 
process.  The Agreement under the framework of th e FTA between Chile and China had been signed 
on 13 April 2008 and had entered into force on 1 A ugust 2010.  According to Article 120 of the FTA, 
which had been signed in November 2005, the Parties had agreed to negotiate trade in services after 
the conclusion of the negotiations of the FTA, in or der to progressively liberalize bilateral trade in 
services, and eliminate substantially all discriminati on or discriminatory measures in this area.  The 
improved market access provided by both Parties would enhance bilateral trade in services.  Under the 
Agreement, China had improved or added commitment s in 22 sectors and sub-sectors compared to its 
GATS schedule.  These included in computing, mi ning, environment, sports and air transport 
services.  As for Chile's commitments, 37 sectors and sub-sectors were to be opened up to China compared to Chile's GATS commitments.  These included in legal services, construction and 
architecture, computing, real estate, advertisemen t, mining, distribution, education, environment, 
tourism, sports and air transport services.  Moreover, the Agreement's review mechanism, which 
established a Free Trade Commission (FTC) and a Committee on Trade in Services, would not only 
allow a periodic review of the implementation of  the Agreement, but could also propose further 
liberalization of trade in services in areas of mutual  interest.  The Agreement had been welcomed in 
the business circles of both countries and service su ppliers from both Parties were making efforts to 
seek opportunities to enhance cooperation.  Althou gh more than one year had passed since the 
Agreement had entered into force, China was tryi ng to build upon the Agreement to capture the 
untapped potential of trade in services and envisaged an increase in bilateral trade in services in the 
medium and long term.  Finally, he said that the Pa rties had provided written answers to the questions 
by the above-mentioned Members, and they we re prepared to respond to further queries from 
Members if required. 
6. The representative of the United States expressed  his appreciation for the presentations made 
by the Parties, as well as for the material provided in advance of the meeting.  He noted that the 
Agreement had carved out large areas of both Parties' services markets, and was in important respects less ambitious in its coverage than the Parties' commitments under the GATS.  The Parties themselves 
had acknowledged that the coverage of the Agr eement's liberalization commitments was narrower 
than that of the GATS, while noting that the exclusions  were not intended to be permanent.  In light of 
the significant exclusions from the Agreement, in cluding for example the ab sence of commitments in 
financial services, and the Partie s' acknowledgement that liberali zation was incomplete, he asked 
whether they believed that the Agreement curre ntly satisfied GATS Article V conditions for  WT/REG230/M/2 
 Page 3 
 
 
  substantial sector coverage and e limination of substantially all discrimination, or whether those 
conditions would be only satisfied after further negotiations took place.   Article 9 only provided that 
the Parties "might review" the Agreement.  It did not create any mechanism or obligation on the 
Parties to review their commitments under the Ag reement, much less any obligation to achieve 
additional liberalization.  He thus asked what were the compulsions on the Parties to address the 
exclusions by the Agreement, which the Parties had stated "were not intended to be permanent". 
7. The representative of China requested that the qu estions be sent in writing so they could be 
forwarded to his capital.  He said he would ge t back to the Members concerned in due time. 
8. The Chairman said that the consideration of the services aspects of the Economic Integration 
Agreement between China and Chile had allowed th e Committee to clarify a number of questions and 
that oral discussion of the Agreement could be conc luded in accordance with pa ragraph 11 of the TM.   
If any delegations wished to ask follow-up questions  they were invited to forward submissions in 
writing to the Secretariat by 16 November 2011  and the Parties were as ked to submit replies  in 
writing by no later than 30 November 2011.  In accordance with paragraph 13 of the TM all written 
submissions, as well as minutes of the §meeting would be circulated promptly, in all WTO official 
languages, and would be made available on the WTO website. 
9. The Committee took note of the comments made. 
__________