Download file 744 KB Texto completo en español More of: Felipe  Larraín Bascuñán Fernando Agüero John Weekes Julius Katz Manuel Vicuña María Rozas Robert M. Stern Rogelio Ramírez de la O. Ronald Wonnacott

Optimal for a small economy such as Chile is, in connection with foreign trade, a multilateral liberalization where all countries liberate their trade of goods and services as soon as possible in addition to their flows of capital and people. That was the objective of GATT, and is now that of its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Complementary to GATT, Chile has resorted to parallel tools to expand its insertion into the world economy. First it did so through unilateral liberalization and later through bilateral agreements. Lately, under debate are the possibility and convenience of joining Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement), currently comprised by Canada, the United States and Mexico.
In order to analyze this possibility in depth, the conditions of entry and its impact on the Chilean economy, Centro de Estudios Públicos organized an international seminar on October 19 and 20, 1994, together with the Fraser Institute of Canada. Ambassador Julius Katz participated, who presided over the American delegation in the Nafta negotiations (1989–1993); as did Ambassador John Weekes, Head of the Canadian Delegation to Nafta; Ricardo Vicuña, Coordinator of the Nafta Research Committee of the Ministry of Finance of Chile; Fernando Agüero, Director of the PEPALC program of the Confederation of Production and Commerce; and María Rozas, Vice President of the Workers Confederation (CUT). Also present were experts Ronald Wonnacott of the Centre for International Studies of Canada; Felipe Larraín B., of the Catholic University of Chile; Robert Stern, of the University of Michigan; and Rogelio Ramírez of Ecanal, Mexico.