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South America and South Atlantic Islands
Chile |
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Country information
Trade and investment
Trade and investment with the UK
From 2005-06 UK exports to Chile grew 20% from £152 million to £187 million. UK imports from Chile reached £485 million as compared to a total of £530 million in 2006. Chile is the UK's fourth largest export market in South America after Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. The UK's main exports to Chile are beverages, brand medicines, auto parts, specialised machinery, power generation equipment, paper and cardboard, and plastics.
Chile's biggest exports to the UK were gold, wine (the UK is the largest market in the world for Chilean wine), copper, silver, wood and wood pulp, table grapes, frozen chicken (we take roughly 25% of total chicken exports from Chile), cardboard, molybdenum and methane.
The UK is the fourth largest foreign investor in Chile, behind the US, Spain and Canada, with almost 10% of total investment in the country over the period 1974-2004. Britain's largest investments over this period have been in the Mining sector (roughly 65% of the total £2.3 billion invested by the UK). Significant investment has also been made in Industry (10.5% of the £2.3 billion total), Services (8.5%) and Water (7%). Most recently ED&F Man gained control of Chile's largest sugar producer Iansa, Royal Sun Alliance acquired Chile's leading insurer (US$120 million), and British Gas entered into exclusive negotiations to build/supply a US$900 million LNG (liquid natural gas) terminal on the Chilean coast. A UK-Chile Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) was ratified in April 1997. A bilateral Double Taxation Agreement came into force in January 2005.
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Chile
UK development assistance
The UK Department for International Development does not have a bilateral aid programme in Chile, as it does in some of the poorer Latin American countries. But the British Government, through its Embassy in Santiago, funds a number of technical cooperation projects, visits, exchanges and scholarships. Information regarding our projects and scholarships can be found on the Embassy's website.
