Seminar: Recent Trends in Chile’s Trade Policy: The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Pacific Alliance

SINGAPORE APEC STUDY CENTRE AND
REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME SEMINAR

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

Chile has an open and externally-oriented economy. It has long advocated regionalism in the Asia-Pacific and its diplomatic relations with Asia date back to the 18th century. Chile joined the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council in 1991 and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in 1994. Along with Singapore, Chile was one of the P-4 – the original core of countries promoting an Asia-Pacific free trade agreement. This initiative has since evolved into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an ambitious and high-quality free trade initiative. In 2011, along with Mexico, Peru, and Colombia, Chile founded the Pacific Alliance – which has the goals of promoting regional integration among member countries and strengthening ties with the Asia-Pacific. Today, the Alliance has 34 observer countries, including Singapore.

This talk will first analyze the history of the TPP and the Pacific Alliance from a Chilean perspective. From there, it will address the challenges these two initiatives face in promoting regionalism and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Manfred Wilhelmy, born in Germany in 1945, is a citizen of Chile. He graduated in Law from Catholic University of Valparaiso (1968) and was admitted to the bar in 1969. In 1971 and 1973 he was awarded M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Politics (Princeton University), where he specialized in the field of international relations.

He is a faculty member of the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile.  He has also taught at Princeton University and at SAIS, the Johns Hopkins University.  Since 2007 to 2014 he was director of the Journal Estudios Internacionales. Since 1990 he has worked on East Asian international relations. In 1994 he was appointed Executive Director of the Chile Pacific Foundation, a private organization established to promote Chile’s links with the Pacific Basin economies. He chairs the Chilean Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation (CHILPEC), and from 2004 through 2006 he was Alternate Member of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).

His major publications are in the areas of Chilean foreign policy and international relations in the Latin America region and Asia-Pacific. He is a member of Chile Transparente (Chilean chapter of Transparency International).

REGISTRATION

To register, please complete the reply form and email to iseasevents3@iseas.edu.sg.