Political Quotes

“on June 6, 2003, the United States and Chile signed a historic and comprehensive free trade agreement designed to reduce barriers and facilitate trade and investment between both countries. Negotiations had begun back in December 2000, and 14 negotiating rounds were held. In the final round, 230 negotiators worked 9 straight days to come up with an agreement that contains more than 800 pages of text and annexes. The result of all this hard work is a state-of-the-art trade pact that includes groundbreaking provisions which have never been negotiated as part of a free trade agreement. For example, the agreement includes new anticorruption rules in government contracting, and commitments to make end-user piracy of copyrighted works a criminal offense. Also included are new customs procedures which will increase transparency, efficiency, and timeliness of customs clearance procedures while maintaining strong border security. Chile has agreed to new regulatory transparency commitments that will govern the interaction of service regulators with private parties, increasing public access to rulemaking procedures. In addition, the dispute settlement process will become more transparent with more public hearings, access to legal submissions, and the rights of third parties to submit views.”