Entered into at Lima, on 22 June, 1998, enacted in Chile through Supreme Decree Nº 1093 issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 1 July, 1998 and published in the Official Gazette on 21, July, 1998. The Agreement came into effect on 1 July, 1998.

This Economic Complementarity Agreement was subscribed under the 1980 Montevideo Agreement, which established the Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI). The aim of the Agreement is to establish an extended economic space to allow the free circulation of goods and services.

The Agreement comprises 23 Chapters and a trade liberalization program that covers all products. The Agreement contains rules related to non-tariff restrictions, rules of origin, safeguards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical and regulatory matters and settlement of disputes, among others.

By subscribing to this Agreement, Chile strengthened various other Agreements with members of the Andean Pact, such as Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, and trade figures reached over US$ 2.000 million a year.

The Origin Regimen is found in Annex 3 and governs matters such as Qualification and Determination of Origin, Origin Certificates, Verification, Control and Sanctions.

The Agreement qualifies as originating those goods that:

• Are wholly produced in the territory of one of both parties, exclusively from originating material.
• Come from the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms.
• Are manufactured with non-originating materials, as long as those materials are subject to a change in the tariff classification;
• Are not subject to a change in tariff classification, or otherwise are subject to a change in tariff classification and undergo assembly operations, as long as they have a 50% Regional Added Value.
• Comply with the specific origin requirements listed in Appendix Nº 1.

To qualify for preferential treatment, the good must be covered by a certificate of origin under a valid format, contained in Appendix Nº 2 of the Annex, submitted by the certification agencies authorized for this purpose, signed by authorized individuals, the signatures of which shall be registered before ALADI s General Secretariat.

The certificates shall have an effective date equal to 180 days from the date of issuance, and shall be issued on the same date indicated on the commercial invoice or within the following 60 days.

Where the goods are invoiced from a third country, proof of this circumstance shall be provided on the certificate, detailing the invoice and the details of the issuer. If, at the time of issuance of the certificate of origin, the invoice number were unknown, the importer shall make an affidavit stating the justification and shall indicate the number and date of the invoice and the certificate of origin.

As a means to verify origin, the Agreement provides for the possibility that the customs authority of the importing country request the competent authority of the exporting country, information regarding the authenticity or accuracy of the certificate of origin covering a good. The requested authority shall provide the information in a time frame that shall not exceed 30 working days. In case the information is not provided or is considered unsatisfactory, the importing signatory country can suspend preferential treatment.

The Customs Authority of the importing country can also send written questionnaires to exporters or producers in the exporting country and request that the competent authority in that country take the appropriate steps to carry out verification visits to the exporter s facilities, in order to examine the production processes, without prejudice of other procedures that may be determined by an Administrative Commission to the Agreement.

The Agreement provides for the immediate trade liberalization of over 2.600 products, which arises to 33.4% of Chilean products bound to Peru. Other products are listed in a tax reduction calendar that ranges from 5, 10, 15 to 18 years. Special calendars are considered for the textile industry, establishing immediate tax reduction for raw material and deadlines up to 8 years for the remaining products in the industry.

» Text of the Agreement