Since the 1990s, Chile has been internationalizing its economy. The signing of the Free Trade Agreement with Canada in 1997 and the Economic Partnership Agreement with Mercosur in 1996 revived Chile`s expansion efforts. The EU and Chile concluded an Association Agreement in 2002 containing a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which came into force in February 2003 and covers EU-Chile trade relations. The EU and Chile are negotiating the modernisation of the trade component of the existing EU-Chile Association Agreement so that it can continue to address all areas of EU-Chile trade and investment relations. In 2008, Chile signed free trade agreements with Australia, Honduras and Colombia, while expanding its agreements with Peru and Cuba. New opportunities for U.S. workers and manufacturers: all exports of consumer goods and industrial products can now arrive in Chile duty-free. Major U.S. export sectors, such as agricultural and construction machinery, cars and auto parts, computers and other computer products, medical equipment and paper products. Chile is the first Latin American country to have sealed a free trade agreement with China (2005) and to work with Beijing since early 2007 to extend the agreement to services and investment. Other agreements in this regard were reached during President Bachelet`s visit to China in April 2008. The service contract came into effect in August 2010. Chile is one of the most active Latin American countries in the field of bilateral trade agreements The Chile-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which came into force in March 2009, aims to strengthen trade relations between the two countries and make Chile the gateway for Australian products to Latin America.
From the beginning of 2015, all duties except sugar were abolished. This agreement has significantly encouraged the development of the 200 Australian companies operating in Chile. In addition, many of these companies have continued to expand into other Latin American countries. In 1998, Chile signed an agreement establishing several bilateral free trade agreements with several Central American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.