Brussels, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The 6th negotiating round over the free-trade and association agreement between the EU and Chile, in Brussels this week, enabled both parties to "clarify" their stances on the main points of dissension: farm subsidies, fisheries and financial services. The two sides, moreover, agreed to include a co-operation clause in the future agreement regarding the fight against terrorism, the contents of which will need fleshing out in December's negotiations.
"We have sufficiently progressed in the examination of the liberalisation proposals to reach an exchange of concessions at the 7th round, from 10 to 14 December in Santiago", declared the Director General of External Relations at the Commission, Guy Legras. In the agricultural sector, Chile has called for special treatment for the country's sensitive products that are subject to export subsidies in the EU. "We are not placing the European common agricultural policy into question in the framework of these negotiations. What is of concern to us, is not to import sensitive products subsidised in Europe", Chile's Ambassador to the EU, Alberto van Klavere, pointed out. "The link between subsidies and liberalisation will be studied on a case by case basis", says a European source. The questions of recognition of names in the wine sector must also still be clarified. The EU has also to present a text on health an plant health controls. Regarding fisheries, Spain, which insists on access to Chilean waters and ports, proposed linking this issue to an investment programme. "The EU proposed interesting ideas that need analysing", Heraldo Munoz, Chilean Deputy Foreign Minister told EUROPE. In the financial sector, Chile is said to have come closer to the European position, calling for negotiations on the basis of a "positive list" like in the framework of GATS (in other words: only the services cited in the agreement will be liberalised). "We are ready for a certain amount of flexibility if we see flexibility on the other side", Heraldo Munoz stipulated.