President Gabriel Boric began his activities in Thailand, a country to which he traveled to participate in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2022 forum. In a discussion held at Chulalongkorn University, the President stated that Chile is not going to choose between States United States and China despite “pressure” to do so in the midst of the trade war between the two powers.
This Thursday, from Thailand, President Gabriel Boric affirmed that Chile is not going to choose between the United States or China and spoke of “pressure” to do so in the midst of the trade war between the two countries, a conflict that broke out and made news under the first government of Donald Trump.
His statements were made in a discussion that he led at the Chulalongkorn University
“We are facing a trade war between the United States and China,” he started.
“We face pressure to say ‘OK, where are they?’ As a sovereign country, we want to say that we have the autonomy to decide and have relations with the whole world.”he added.
After that, outside the Sheraton in Bangkok, the President was consulted for his statements.
“It is clear that in a trade war between two powers there is always pressure to position oneself,” he explained.
“And what I have defended and will continue to defend regarding the interests of Chile is political autonomy to be able to have relations free of any type of pressure, in the sense of excluding a party,” he added.
“We continue to have important relations with China,” he recalled, “in fact, it is our main trading partner,” he gave an example.
So, for the bilateral meeting scheduled for Friday with Xi JinpingBoric announced that he hopes that the meeting will be “good” and that he will be able to address the deepening of the relationship between the two countries.
Boric also assured that Chile has good relations with the United States, that he has already spoken with President Joe Biden and that he has highlighted the importance of “rethinking” the position towards Latin America. “We continue to work in that direction,” he said.
The President also has agreed bilateral agreements with Japan, Canada and a meeting with the leader of Vietnam was scheduled for tomorrowan instance that can be used to unblock one of the many foreign knots in regards to TPP11.
Boric y TPP11
Boric arrived in Thailand together with Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola, a trip that also aims to test ground by bilateral letters for which the Government is at stake, before depositing with New Zealand the treaty already approved by Congress.
The letters basically point to the dispute resolution mechanism once Chile joins the TPP11.
Mexico and New Zealand have already accepted them but Vietnam, for example, has already said that it would not process that this year..
“I think that the meetings that we are going to have these days are going to be important to see how much space we have for the side letters,” Urrejola said.
I want to insist that behind the side letters there is the need to be able to open the debate first in the TPP11 but also with other countries in the region and Asia Pacific in general on the debate on the dispute settlement mechanism”, explained the chancellor.
“This debate is already taking place at the international level, but we want to be more active on this issue,” he explained.
Meanwhile, in front of the press outside the Sheraton, the President confirmed that this day a memorandum of understanding was signed with Canada where “the review of dispute resolution between companies and States is promoted.”
“From our perspective, there is inequality that often favors companies over states and that has to be reviewed. It is being promoted in the European Union, which does not take away from the fact that we are going to fulfill the mandate that Congress gave us. We have said that it will be deposited this year ”, he closed.
Inflation
On this trip Boric already participated in the CEO Summit APEC 2022, where he addressed issues such as inequality and inflation, for which he highlighted the work done in recent months to try to curb the secondand stressed the importance of “fiscal discipline”.
In the delegation that accompanied him to Thailand were businessmen and two of them spoke to Radio Bío Bío regarding the experience so far: Alejandra Mustakis and Juan Enrique Rassmuss.
“It is vital to have a bridge between the public and private world, especially when there is a recession,” said the designer and president of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Chile.
For his part, he regretted that in recent times the country’s attention has been on the constituent situation and internal problems, so “coming with a global perspective is already a huge start for Chile,” he celebrated.