Today, in the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, was held the meeting of the High Level Group (HLG) of the Pacific Alliance, composed of the Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of the four Pacific Alliance’s countries.
In order to advance the mandates of the Heads of State at the Summit of Paracas, Deputy Ministers examined the reports of the Technical Groups that met during the previous two days around a series of issues such as innovation, SMEs, trade facilitation, trade unique windows, technical-productive education, movement of people and cultural theme recently joined the Declaration of Paracas.
They also assessed the reports on the meeting of Presidents in New York within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly; the Second Ministerial Meeting of the Pacific Alliance with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and the status of recommendations and proposals of the Business Council of the Pacific Alliance.
About external relations, the Deputy Ministers referred to the dialogue which was held with Portugal, the EU and the OECD. It was also agreed to continue working with the mechanism 42 observer countries, particularly regarding cooperation projects of interest to the Pacific Alliance.
In other matters, the Deputy Ministers assessed the schedule of upcoming activities of the Pacific Alliance and agreed to promote in all countries the approval and early entry into force of the Trade Protocol that most liberalized trade between the countries of the Pacific Alliance that will contribute to significantly boost its trade integration.
The countries of the Pacific Alliance represent the eighth world economy , concentrate a population of 216 million people and have an average per capita GDP of $ 16,500 .