Pacific Alliance To Remove Intra-Bloc Trade Taxes

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

08 March 2016

The member states of the Pacific Alliance, a Latin American economic bloc, will remove tariffs on 92 percent of intra-bloc trade on May 1, 2016, the Director General of Chile's Directorate General of International Relations (DIRECON), Andrés Rebolledo, has confirmed.

The remaining eight percent of tariffs will be reduced gradually, Rebolledo said.

Chile on January 5, 2016, approved the protocol to eliminate tariffs on 92 percent of Pacific Alliance trade, becoming the last country in the bloc to do so. The protocol was intended to complement and enhance existing trade treaties between the Alliance members.

Rebolledo said that the protocol will strengthen Chile's exports to the other countries in the Alliance: Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

The Pacific Alliance was established in 2012. Its member states account for 38 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Latin America and the Caribbean. To join the bloc, a country must have bilateral FTAs with all existing member states.

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