Trade in Financial Services: The Case of Chile
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The negotiations were concluded in 2007. Negotiations with Mexico started in 2007 and are still ongoing. 18. Chile’s financial services commitments in the Uruguay Round are described in more detail in annex 5C. They can be found in GATS/SC/18/Suppl.3 of February 28, 1998. 19. At the time, the banking act had not been reformed, and foreign banks could access the Chilean market only through the Decree Law 600 foreign investment mechanism. 20. These areas were mainly agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, food and beverages (mostly wine), some textiles, and professional services. 21. Foreign banks can have commercial presence in Chile as branches of foreign corporations, but for regulatory purposes, they are completely separate entities from their parent corporations, and the limits to their operations are based on their local capital. Thus, in practice, they are not direct branches. 22. This decision was facilitated by the politically very controversial nature of this topic. The government had introduced legislation to increase the percentage of pension funds that could be invested in foreign securities more or less at the same time as the negotiations with the EU and the United States were undertaken; therefore, there was concern that one would interfere with the other. 23. At the time, it was called the Superintendency of AFPs. 24. Isapres are regulated by the Superintendency of Isapres, whose relationship with the government is with the Ministry of Health. Even though Isapres provide health insurance coverage, their regulator was not considered a financial services regulator. 25. Negotiations began in April 2000 in the case of the EU and in December 2000 in the case of the United States. 26. However, experts from the pension regulator, the SP, participated in the preparatory technical work. 27. No consultations took place with other potential stakeholders regarding the financial services negotiations with the EU and the United States, including civil society in general. 28. The text of the Chile-EU financial services chapter and Chile’s commitments can be found in http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2004/november/tradoc _111620.pdf and http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2004/november/ tradoc_111635.pdf, respectively. 29. Chile reserved the right to introduce specific regulation for the application of this commitment. 30. These provisions differ from those in GATS.