The meeting was held at the Palacio de San Carlos, the seat of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was attended by José Miguel Ahumada Franco, Undersecretary for International Economic Relations of Chile; María Carmelina Londoño, Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, and Luis Fernando Fuentes, Vice Minister for Foreign Trade of Colombia; Luz María de la Mora Sánchez, Undersecretary of Foreign Trade of Mexico (as Pro Témpore Presidency); and Luis Enrique Chávez Basagoitia, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ana Cecilia Gervasi Díaz, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Peru.

At the meeting, the authorities discussed trade issues, including the negotiation process with Associated States, specifically South Korea, and the eventual adherence of Ecuador to the mechanism. They also discussed cooperation matters, such as the release of the launch of the call for the cooperation fund, the 4th Cooperation Forum and the follow-up to the joint declarations with Observer States. They also discussed the activities to be conducted on the 11th anniversary of the Pacific Alliance to be held on April 28.

Finally, they received representatives of the AP Business Council and the Inter-American Development Bank, with whom they reviewed their relationship with the mechanism.

January 26, 2022 – The signing of the Joint Declaration with Singapore, which seeks to deepen cooperation in areas of common interest that contribute to the free movement of goods, services, capital and people, took place in Bahia Malaga, venue of the XVI Summit of the Pacific Alliance.

According to the Joint Declaration, the Pacific Alliance and Singapore will identify opportunities in areas such as investment, trade and tourism, digital economy, trade facilitation measures, culture, economy/inclusive growth, among others.

The document was signed by the Foreign Minister of Chile, Andrés Allamand; the Vice President and Foreign Minister of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez; the Minister of Commerce of Colombia, María Ximena Lombana; the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard; the Secretary of Economy of Mexico, Tatiana Clouthier; the Foreign Minister of Peru, Óscar Maúrtua, and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru, Roberto Sánchez.

See the statement here

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• The Asian country is about to become the first Associated State of the integration bloc.

January 26, 2022 – In the framework of the XVI Summit of Presidents of the Pacific Alliance, the Trade ministers of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, on the one hand, and that of Singapore, on the other, signed the Free Trade Agreement, whose negotiations ended in July 2021.

This instrument must now comply with the procedures before the legislative bodies of each of the countries, and in the case of Colombia, it must subsequently pass to the endorsement of the Constitutional Court.

The Agreement includes 25 chapters in disciplines such as: market access for goods, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, economic and customs cooperation, trade facilitation, investment, e-commerce, cross-border trade in services, maritime services, telecommunications, temporary entry of business persons, state-owned enterprises, public procurement, competition policy, good regulatory practices, gender, SMEs and legal and institutional matters.

The signing of this Agreement marks a milestone for this integration initiative because Singapore will become the first Associated State of the Pacific Alliance.

The negotiations with the Asian economy complement the trade relationship, encourage the attraction of investments, facilitate government procurement contracts and enhance the access of service providers to a wide range of sectors.

It also opens the door to cooperation in various areas such as energy, food trade, the digital economy, infrastructure and urban solutions, port management and logistics, and the interoperability of Foreign Trade Single Windows.

Reaching the Singapore market through this trade agreement will allow the countries of the Alliance to use regional inputs from different countries enhancing regional production chains. It is expected to attract investors from that country to the extended market of the bloc as a productive and export platform to the region.

The Pacific Alliance is made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. It has a population of 230 million, a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 19,000 and exports of USD 627 billion. This makes the group the eighth largest exporter in the world. The Asian country became an Observer State of the Pacific Alliance in 2014 and a candidate for Associate State in 2017. Negotiations for a Trade Agreement were finalized in July 2021, after four years of deliberations.

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August 18, 2021.- For the first time in history, the Pacific Alliance participated in the framework of Arendalsuka, the most important political and business meeting in Norway. On this occasion, the ambassadors of the Pacific Alliance presented the event: “10 years of The Pacific Alliance: education, culture, and business opportunities”, with the purpose of making known the opportunities and benefits that this bloc composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru has to offer to Norwegian entrepreneurs and investors.

During the interventions, the ambassadors indicated that the Pacific Alliance works to strengthen regional integration, with the clear objective of progressively moving towards the free circulation of goods, services, capital and people in the region.

The presence of the Pacific Alliance at Arendalsuka was considered fundamental by the participants of the event. This year there was a greater relevance, taking into account that on September 13,2021 parliamentary elections will be held to define the government that will lead this Nordic country for the next four years. Norway, in addition to being an observer state of the Alliance, has companies such as Yara International, which has a presence in the four countries of the bloc, and BAMA, a company that imports agricultural products from the four member states of the PA to Norway.

The event was well attended, including key players in the Norwegian political arena, such as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, Jens Frølich Holte, the media, the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Kingdom of Norway and members of academia.

The event generated interest among the attendees, who recognized the importance of the bloc, as well as the potential for future growth and thus promote Norwegian investment in our respective countries.

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August 10, 2021.- The official launch of the Pacific Alliance Regional Labor Observatory, supported by the Technical Labor Group of the PA, was held this Tuesday. Its objective will be to contribute to the analysis of the dynamics of the labor market in order to adapt university training programs and facilitate the labor market insertion of university graduates in the Pacific Alliance.

The event, held virtually, had the participation of Adela Maestre, director of Regional Coordination and Integration Mechanisms of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, representing the pro tempore presidency, and Janet Ortega, coordinator of the Technical Labor Group of the PA.

“This observatory will facilitate and strengthen the incorporation of our citizens into the labor market, while promoting the exchange of experiences and opening the space for dialogue to provide approaches that enrich our public policies in this matter,” said Adela Maestre.

During its four-year duration, the project, financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union (EU), will propose a package of activities that will allow the homogenization of methodologies and tools used in the PA countries to measure and control variables related to employment, the labor market and the insertion of professionals into the real sector in areas of knowledge specific to their training.

In addition, the implementation of the labour observatory in Higher Education Institutions will offer students and professionals a reliable system of information on existing opportunities in the region’s industries and will allow them to find work abroad more easily.

“Our accompaniment in this task is given since the Technical Education Group had an approach with the Technical Labor Group in order to present the EMPLE-AP project, which is financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union and in which 14 Universities of the 4 member countries of the Alliance, as well as Universities of the European Union participate,” said Janet Ortega.

The Higher Education Institutions that are part of the EMPLE-AP consortium are: Universidade do Porto -U. PORTO-, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria –ULPGC, Universidad César Vallejo -UCV-, Universidad Continental -UC-, Instituto Profesional Providencia -IPP-, Universidad de Valparaíso -UV-, Universidad Autónoma del Noreste -UANE-, Universidad de Siena -UNISI-, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla -BUAP-, Ilumno -ILUMNO-, University of Bordeaux (U-BORDEAUX), Universidad de Antioquia (UDEA), Corporación Universitaria Unitec and Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, general coordinator of the project in Latin America.

Thanks to the management of the Technical Labor Group, support for this observatory was included in the Lima Declaration of December 2019 under this guideline: establish a working group with the Coordinators of the Project “Observatory for Labor Market Insertion and Strengthening Employability in Pacific Alliance countries EMPLE-AP”.

August 5, 2021.- As part of the schedule of activities that has been jointly designed between the countries of the Pacific Alliance, during the pro tempore presidency of Colombia, the Ambassadors of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru participated in the television program ‘Talk with World Leaders’ of the Phoenix TV network, in order to publicize this regional integration mechanism in China, an observer country and strategic partner. Within this framework, they presented the commercial opportunities and synergies between the countries of the bloc to continue consolidating their product offerings and the strengths of their economies to penetrate this market and jointly face common challenges.

The Pacific Alliance is the eighth largest economic power and the eighth largest exporter in the world. The four countries concentrate a population of 230 million people and offer competitive advantages for international business, with a clear orientation towards the Asia-Pacific region, with China as a priority market, with whom, in recent years, thanks to the power of integration, there has been a constant and progressive growth in commercial exchanges.

The television program ‘Talk With World Leaders’ of the Phoenix TV network has an audience reach of 500 million viewers in different broadcast channels worldwide, particularly in China, Europe and the United States. The Pacific Alliance broadcast will be divided into two episodes, the second of which will air this Friday, August 6 at 10 p.m. China time and can be viewed on the website www.ifeng.com. The first episode had an active audience of 41 million people across all media.

This show is conducted by renowned host and producer, Fu Xiaotian. Some of the personalities who have been guests on her program include the 8˚ Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, the then Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe and the Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry.

To relive the broadcast visit:
https://v.ifeng.com/c/88IXPtdseEr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu8HSaKl1Xc

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AP/ 21^st of July of 2021. The Pacific Alliance (PA) and Singapore have concluded negotiations of the Pacific Alliance-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (PASFTA). This was welcomed by the Ministers of Trade of Colombia Ms. Maria Ximena Lombana, of Peru Ms. Claudia Cornejo, of Mexico Ms. Tatiana Clouthier and Mr. Andres Allamand the Minister of Foreign Relations of Chile as members of the PA and Mr. Gan Kim Yong Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore via a videoconference on July 21st.

Maria Ximena Lombana, Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism for Colombia, in her capacity of Pro Tempore President of the PA announced the closing of negotiations of the PASFTA and highlighted the strengthen of our commercial partnership ties with Singapore.

“This FTA marked a milestone for the PA as the biggest step in our integration with the Asia Pacific Region which allow us to grant Singapore the status as the first Associated State to the PA. In 2017, the Pacific Alliance launched negotiations with Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which are Candidates to be Associated States to develop instruments for economic and commercial integration, stressing our commitment to effectively insert ourselves in the Asia Pacific Region.”

“With this new Agreement between Singapore and the Pacific Alliance we are fulfilling this vision path improving the commercial relationship, attracting investments, expanding market access of goods, and boosting access for service suppliers in a wide range of sectors. Reaching Singapore’s market allows using regional inputs from different countries enhancing productive regional chains. We expect to attract Singaporean investors to the Pacific Alliance’s extended market as a productive and export platform to the region.”

“The Alliance perceives that being an Associated State is as mechanism that promotes free trade agreements and provides windows of opportunities for cooperation. This instrument will enable to explore areas for collaboration on technology and digital economy that may include the linking of SG’s national Single Window with the PA’s, port management and logistics, infrastructure and urban solutions, energy collaboration and food trade. Additionally, Singapore suggested the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) as other initiative which we may explore with the PA states, recognizing that it may bring tangible benefits for all the countries involved.”

“The Pacific Alliance is in alignment with Singapore’s idea on free trade agreements, which will bring growth and ensure long-term sustainable economic development, and will also boost our commercial and economic relationship.”

Mr. Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Trade and Industry for Singapore said that, “Singapore is honoured to be joining the Pacific Alliance in announcing the conclusion of the Pacific Alliance-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. The PASFTA establishes a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, and mutually beneficial economic partnership that builds on existing agreements between the Pacific Alliance and Singapore. This agreement complements Singapore’s existing bilateral and plurilateral links with each Pacific Alliance country, including the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, Peru-Singapore FTA, and, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is significant that the PASFTA will be our first FTA with Colombia.”

“The PASFTA represents the shared commitment by the Pacific Alliance and Singapore to persevere with greater economic integration and support the rules based multilateral trading system. It sends a powerful message to the global community that our countries remain open for business, and despite the pressures placed on economic multilateralism, we want to reach out to one another and create more opportunities for our people. We want to build on this foundation, grow our links even more, and generate opportunities for our people and businesses.”

“We agree with the Pacific Alliance that the Associated Status provides a platform for collaboration in various areas such as energy collaboration, food trade, digital economy, infrastructure and urban solutions, port management and logistics, and the linking of National Single Windows.”

The Pacific Alliance comprises of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Collectively, it has a combined population of 230 million, a per capita GDP of 19 thousand US dollars and exports that reach 627 US billion dollars, making the Alliance the 8th largest exporter in the world. In 2019, Singapore’s total trade in goods with the Pacific Alliance was S$6.1 billion, which accounted for 33.2% of our total trade in goods with Latin America.

The PA is also positioned us as the 8th largest economy, attracting 56 million tourists, representing 41% of Latin America and the Caribbean GDP and accounting for 38% of its foreign direct investment. Additionally, both, the World Competitiveness Centre and the Doing Business rank our countries as the most competitive in the region.

Singapore became an Observer State to the Pacific Alliance in 2014, and a Candidate Associated State in 2017. This event complies with mandate from the presidential statement of the PA´s Presidents and the Prime Minister of Singapore at Santiago’s Summit last December.

Singapore and the Pacific Alliance will work towards a formal signing during the Pacific Alliance Summit in December in 2021, in Colombia. Singapore will become the first Associate State of the Pacific Alliance upon signing of the PASFTA. The Pacific Alliance and Singapore look forward to using this platform to catalyse closer people-to-people ties, and further economic cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as infrastructure, digital and innovation, energy, and food trade.

July 19, 2021 – The Free Trade Commission of the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), in which the Vice Ministers of Trade of the 4 countries participated, signed today an agreement (Decision number 12) that eliminates the technical obstacles to the commercialization of medical devices within the mechanism.

In other words, the same requirements were defined in the 4 markets for the commercialization of this type of goods, in terms of good manufacturing practices, certificates of free sale, sanitary registrations, labeling and conditions of sale that must be complied with in the trade of this type of goods. With the signing of this agreement, the countries assume the commitment to initiate the corresponding internal regulatory modifications.

This harmonization not only has a positive impact on the trade facilitation strategy in the Pacific Alliance and boosts trade within the bloc, but also becomes another mechanism that will help the safe economic reactivation of the countries.

With this, regulatory harmonization is now complete for 4 sectors: cosmetics, food supplements, household cleaning and now medical devices.

Trade in this type of products within the Pacific Alliance represents more than US$47 million.

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