Description

The gradual and uniform reduction of the general ad valorem import tariff has been a fundamental part in Chile’s global trade liberalization process, initiated in previous decades. This reduction was strengthened with the implementation of Free Trade Agreements with Chile’s main trade partners. The increasing proportion of imports coming from partners with preferential tariffs has meant that the global effective import tariff has consistently declined during the 2000-2005 period. In 2005, it dropped past 2%, far below the general import tariff. It is confirmed that effective import tariff paid by products coming from signer partners, is significantly lower than the other countries’. At present, capital goods have the lowest import tariff (1,3%) followed by intermediate goods (1,7%) and consumer goods (3,1%). When observing economic sectors, although most of them present a decreasing trend, different paths are observed, where worth singling out are current levels of agriculture (1,3%) and mining and industry (1,9%).