[12944]
December 19, 2000
TO: INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE No. 45-00
RE: TRADE NEGOTIATORS SEEK INDUSTRY PRIORITIES FOR US-CHILE FREE TRADE
AGREEMENT
On December 14, 2000, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
published a notice of intent to conduct negotiations with the Republic of Chile on a bilateral free
trade agreement.1 USTR seeks assistance regarding the specific negotiating objectives for
particular sectors, including asset management.
In practice, the Chilean government generally permits US firms to manage mutual funds
and pension assets; Chile, however, has not entered into any trade agreements that contain
market access commitments for asset management. In other words, because of the lack of
binding commitments in the context of a trade agreement, Chile has not provided a measure of
legal certainty to US firms doing business in that country and may diminish market access
levels in the future.
The negotiation of a US-Chile free trade agreement provides an opportunity to assure
that Chile commits to eliminating any barriers that prevent foreign firms from establishing and
operating wholly owned affiliates and that it does not impose regulatory requirements that
serve to deny effective market access to US firms.
To this end, we need your help in identifying market access barriers in Chile and have
attached a questionnaire intended to obtain a current assessment of remaining and/or
unidentified barriers in asset management. Comments are due to USTR on January 29, 2001.
Please forward your comments to me by phone at (202) 326-5810, by fax at (202) 326-
5841, or by e-mail at jchoi@ici.org no later than Friday, January 19, 2001.
Jennifer S. Choi
Assistant Counsel
Attachments in (.pdf format)
1 A copy of the Federal Register notice is attached.