Several weeks ago, President Gabriel Boric referred to the negotiations for the modernization of the Association Agreement between Chile and the European Union (EU). In said instance, he stated that “our government’s will is that it be ratified this year.”
However, two days before the end of this month, there was still no news about the closure of the process that kept Europeans in suspense after the new government took office, which after its arrival in La Moneda announced that it would review the treaties to improve the position of the State of Chile vis-à-vis its counterparts.
This idea was promoted by the Undersecretary for International Economic Relations, José Miguel Ahumada, and provoked cross-sectional criticism from various political actors and former foreign ministers, who summoned the Executive to sign the pact to promote trade in times of recession as soon as possible.
In conversation with Emol, members of the Government explained that the negotiations have already been concluded by Chile, so the expected signing of the modernization will proceed next month, as the head of state had proposed.
“We have already closed the points where we had observations,” the sources pointed out to the aforementioned medium. They also assured that there is already an agreement from Chile, for which the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonia Urrejola, is preparing a visit to Brussels -next month- to give a “political closure” to the talks with the European Union.
After this, a “legal closure” will follow, where the final details of the text that will update the treaty between both parties, which was signed in 2003 and became the first agreed between the EU and a Latin American country, will be refined.
Last November 18 marked the 20th anniversary of the signing of the pact, which has made it possible to double trade between the two countries.
