TRADE POLICY AND MAJOR TRENDS IN CHILEAN EXPORTS UNDER DEMOCRACY, 1990-2012

Abstract

This paper deals with trade policy and the principal trends in Chilean exports after the return to democracy in 1990. During this period, both exports and imports expanded significantly in Chile. As far as exports are concerned, this boom is mainly due to an effective trade policy of additive regionalism, booming copper prices, export diversification and the economic dynamism of China, the principal beneficiary of Chilean exports. On the negative side, the country is still too dependant on copper and a few other primary products. In addition, nowadays, in relative terms Chile is exporting more copper minerals and less refined copper than it used to do in the 1990s, while Chilean exports remained highly concentrated in a few companies only, many of which belong to foreign nationals.