Ambassador Mariano Fernandez and Honorary Consul Erika Monckeberg. photo by Phil Bolton

The Chilean government has targeted Atlanta, among many other U.S. cities, as a location for an industry-specific seminar to encourage American investment in Chile, according to Mariano Fernandez, Chile’s ambassador to the United States. 

Mr. Fernandez traveled from a biotechnology conference in Boston to Atlanta to be on hand for the opening of a new Chilean chamber of commerce and to scout possible locations, time frames and industries for the seminar.  

A strong and diversified base of trading partners has allowed Chile’s import/export-driven economy to remain strong, even though the U.S.’ share of foreign direct investment in Chile has gradually dropped from one-fourth to about 5 to 7 percent, Mr. Fernandez told GlobalAtlanta.

But the South American nation, which has free trade agreements with 56 countries worldwide, is continuing to engage the U.S., the world’s largest economy.  Despite the lag in foreign direct investment from the American side, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has increased 150 percent, from $6 billion in 2004 to $15 billion in 2007, Mr. Fernandez said.

Statistics on Chile’s involvement international trade reveal an emphasis disproportionate to its relatively small population, Mr. Fernandez said. 

“With a population of only 16 million, Chile imported more from the U.S. than Russia, with a population of 150 million and more than Pakistan, with another 150 million or so,” Mr. Fernandez said.

The country relies on imports and exports for 70 percent of its GDP, and Chile supports the loosening of international trade restrictions.  Tariffs are low, and the government supports pending U.S. free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Peru, he added. 

“Free trade is good business for you.  It’s not a gift for the smaller country.  It’s very clear that it’s a win-win situation,” he told GlobalAtlanta.  He added that the free trade agreements improve international relations and forge solidarity between the countries involved because of concrete commitments they are bound to fulfill.

Barriers to trade are falling in the Western Hemisphere, but bigger countries like Brazil are less likely than Chile and other small countries to agree to sweeping trade agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a now-stalled international initiative that proposed to bring all the countries of the Western Hemisphere together in one large bloc.

At the height of the talks about the trade area, Atlanta was vying for the Secretariat, the headquarters city of the FTAA, but the initiative has had trouble moving over the past year.

Chile has had a free trade agreement with the United States since 2004, which Mr. Fernandez said passed easily on the Chilean side.  Chile has the same benefits as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, because it has the same free trade agreements with Canada, Mexico and the U.S., he said.

Having started in the Chilean foreign service in 1967, Mr. Fernandez has spent much of his career working to raise his home country’s international profile. Now serving in his fifth embassy, the Santiago native speaks five languages fluently and has also served as Chile’s ambassador to the European Community, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The United States has been his easiest post thus far on the economic front, he said.  Although he’s doing a considerable amount of outreach—promoting a real estate seminar in Miami, an energy seminar in New York, a biotechnology conference in Boston, agricultural events in California, and an eventual event in Atlanta—he said there has been no lack of interest in Chile in Washington.

“Everybody is knocking on our door promoting something,” said Mr. Fernandez, who also worked as a news editor for German publications while in exile there for eight years during the 70s and early 80s.

He had worked as third secretary in the Chilean Embassy in Germany from 1971-74 before a military coup in his home country forced him out of the foreign service and into the professional world.

A reception was held to welcome the ambassador and inaugurate the new chamber of commerce, and Mr. Fernandez, who was on his second visit to Atlanta, also met with Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, before flying back to Washington.