Chile’s Foreign Minister, Antonia Urrejola, has expressed hope that a modernized trade agreement with the European Union will be concluded by November at the latest after years of being blocked on the table.
«The team of the Undersecretariat for International Economic Relations has continued working and we are very hopeful that in the month of November we will close the agreement», explained Urrejola during a meeting with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, in Argentina.
Thus, he assured that from Santiago «they are ready» to revive the agreement, which was also discussed in mid-September by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who urged the EU-27 to ratify it without mentioning Mercosur due to the existing disputes with France.
Borrell also referred in the summer to the approval of the agreement, linking it to the holding of the constitutional referendum in September, which was finally rejected and which has caused, among many other factors, the collapse of Boric’s popularity.
Thus, October has been the worst month for the Chilean leader, who has seen how disenchantment with his government has been increasing in recent months, even more so since the failed consultation, according to a poll by the Cadem company.
The EU already showed a year ago -after the current Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, won the presidential elections against the extreme right-wing representative José Antonio Kast-, its intention to strengthen ties with Santiago, which have as a fundamental piece this agreement dating from 2002 and which Brussels aspires to modernize.
The EU diplomacy insisted at that time that this modernization would serve to deepen the good cooperation between the EU and Chile, in specific matters such as multilateralism, the defense of democracy and human rights, gender equality, climate action or sustainable and inclusive growth.
