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Chile is one of New Zealand's longest standing and closest friends in LatinAmerica. The New Zealand Embassy has been operating in Santiago since 1972. Chile established an Embassy in Wellington the same year. The two foreign ministries hold regular foreign policy consultations covering a wide range of bilateral and multilateral issues (last held in Santiago, March 2011).
Bilateral trade between New Zealand and Chile is moderate – we produce essentially the same products at the same time of year. NewZealand’s exports to Chile in the year to December 2011 were worth NZ$62million and imports from Chile were worth NZ$65million (year to December 2011).
Chile is a significant destination for New Zealand investment, particularly in the agricultural and energy sectors. Fonterra owns a 99.4% share of Soprole, Chile’s largest dairy processor. There are also significant farming investments in southern Chile, for example, New Zealand company, Manuka, purchased Chile’s largest farm (19,000ha) in March 2008.
There has been significant New Zealand investment in Chile’s energy sector. Renewable energy is a promising sector considering Chile’s resources and expanding energy needs. New Zealand investment here includes investment by Mighty River Power in Geothermal developments. Greymouth Petroleum holds the rights to oil and gas development in a 9,000km2 area in the South of Chile.
The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (or TPP, formerly known as P4) was signed by New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei in 2005, and came into force for those countries in 2006. A binding Environment Cooperation Agreement and a binding Labour Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, which had been negotiated as part of the TPP package, were signed concurrently.
On entry into force, duties were eliminated on 90% of New Zealand’s exports to Chile, (representing an immediate duty saving of NZ$1.9million). All of Chile’s remaining tariffs on New Zealand’s exports will be phased out by 2017. In return New Zealand will phase out all its tariffs by 2015.
One of the objectives of TPP was to create a trade agreement that could be seen as a model within the Asia-Pacific region and could potentially attract new members. The agreement is open to accession “on terms to be agreed among the parties, by any APEC economy or other state”.
Negotiations for an expanded agreement including the United States, Australia, Peru and Viet Nam began in March 2010. Malaysia joined the negotiations during the third round in Brunei in October 2010. The most recent round was held in Melbourne in March 2012.
Chile has been a central focus in Latin America for NewZealand’s business interests particularly in the dairy and agri-business sectors, and increasingly in the renewable energy sector, especially in geothermal power.
A strategic alliance between New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and its Chilean counterpart, CORFO, was signed during President Bachelet’s visit to NewZealand in November 2006. CORFO continues to be a partner in collaborative funding for important initiatives.
A Primary Sector Cooperation Agreement was signed in May 2004. Areas of possible future focus include pastoral farming, meat processing, education and agricultural science and innovation.
Chilean agricultural students have also had the opportunity to undertake a period of study at a New Zealand agricultural institution and then gain work experience on a New Zealand farm.
New Zealand and Chile have both signed the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalisation of International Air Transportation (MALIAT) which supersedes the Open Skies Agreement signed in October 1998.
LAN Chile, Chile’s national airline, offers daily flights between Auckland and Santiago, Chile.
New Zealand signed a Double Tax Agreement with Chile in 2003 which entered into force in 2006.
There are special cultural links between New Zealand Maori and the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, under Chilean administration). These links include a school exchange programme (with Turakina Maori Girls’ College and, at the tertiary level, a research relationship established by Otago University Maori Studies with Rapa Nui counterparts.
Under the Latin America Strategy, Dr Eugenio Tironi Barrios, a Chilean sociologist and public relations specialist, visited NewZealand as a PrimeMinister’s Fellow in May 2007. Dr Tironi’s visit focused on issues related to social cohesion, national identity and national well-being.
On 30 November 2009, the Plaza Nueva Zelandiawas opened by the Ambassador and Mayor of Providencia. The Plaza is a gift from the NewZealand Government to the people of Chile in the year of Chile's Bicentennial.The Plaza Nueva Zelandia aims to provide apermanent reminder of the friendship and partnership between New Zealand and Chile, as neighbours in the South-Pacific region. It was supported by the Cultural Diplomacy InternationalProgramme and the Latin America Strategy Fund.
Education is an important strand of the Chile-New Zealand bilateral relationship. An Education Counsellor for Latin America was appointed to work in the NewZealand Embassy in Santiago in July 2007.
A bilateral arrangement on education cooperation was signed on 4 April 2004. A Scholarships Arrangement between Chile and NewZealand, was signed during former Foreign Minister Foxley’s July ’08 visit, and allows up to 300 scholarship students funded by the Bicentennial Fund for Human Capital Development from Chile to study in NewZealand per year.
A total of 27 Scholarships (9 MAs and 18 PhDs) were awarded this year to Chilean students to study in New Zealand. This makes a total of 59 post graduate scholarships under the scheme so far.
The New Zealand Aid Programme offers up to two New Zealand Development Scholarships each year to Chilean students.
Almost all New Zealand universities and some polytechnics have cooperation agreements in place with counterparts in Chile.
An arrangement on technical cooperation for biodiversity work was signed in 2002 between Chile’s National Commission on the Environment and NewZealand’s Department of Conservation.
In 2002 an agreement on science and technology cooperation was signed between MORST and the Chilean science and technology agency CONICYT. In October 2009, CONICYT sent a scientific delegation to New Zealand for the purpose of establishing collaborative linkages with New Zealand's research institutions and learning from New Zealand's research system and infrastructure.
A visa waiver agreement between Chile and New Zealand for visits of up to three months has been in place since 1999.
The Working Holiday Scheme,established in 2001, enables 1000 young Chileans and 200 young New Zealanders to visit our respective countries. The Scheme is so popular with young Chileans that the 1000 visas are snapped up within days. Enhancements to the scheme were made during the visit to Santiago by the Minister of Foreign Affairs: from October 2011, the scheme will be open for those aged up to 35, and provide for extended periods of study and work.
New Zealand and Chile maintain close contact in a number of multilateral fora on issues such as the law of the sea, nuclear disarmament, Antarctica, human rights, fisheries and agricultural trade. The first multilateral foreign policy talks were held in March 2008 in Santiago. New Zealand and Chile were cosponsors (along with Australia) of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, which Chile signed on 23 February 2010.
Chile and New Zealand work closely together in multilateral organisations such as APEC, WTO and now the OECD.
Chile and New Zealand are cooperating to address greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector through the Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network (LEARN) and as members of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
The new Latin America Development Programme Strategy is being developed. The Strategy will be aligned with the New Zealand government’s overarching policy on international development assistance “to support sustainable development in developing countries, in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable, and prosperous world”. Within this, the core focus is on supporting sustainable economic development.
Further details of the development relationship can be found on the website of the New Zealand Aid Programme
An arrangement on naval cooperation was signed in July 1996 to facilitate exchanges of information between the Chilean Navy and the RoyalNewZealandNavy. The Chief of the New Zealand Navy visited Chile in May 2011.
Land Area** |
756,946 sq km |
Population** |
16.8 million (Chile Reserve Bank 2008 estimate) |
Capital City** |
Santiago de Chile (6 million) |
Religion |
Catholic (67.7%), Protestant/Evangelical (15. 1%) (2002 census) |
Official Language |
Spanish |
Currency** |
Chilean peso |
Exchange Rate** |
NZ$1 = 401C LP [1 August 2011] |
Political system** |
Presidential Democracy |
|
National government** |
Sebastián Piñera |
|
National legislature |
Bicameral legislature (Congress): a Senate (the upper house) comprising 38 members elected for eight years and partly renewed every four years; and a Chamber of Deputies (the lower house), with 120 members who are all elected every four years |
|
Last election |
13 December 2009 (run-off election 17 January 2010) |
|
Next election due |
2013 |
|
Main political parties |
- National Renewal Party - Democratic Independent Union (make up the governing centre-right coalition)
(make up the centre-left Concertación coalition that held power between 1990 and 2010) |
|
Head of State |
Sebastián Piñera |
|
Head of Government |
Sebastián Piñera |
|
Key Ministers |
Ministers as at 1 August 2011 |
|
President |
Sebastián Piñera |
|
Agriculture |
Luis Mayol |
|
Defence |
Andres Allamand |
|
Economy |
Pablo Longueira |
|
Education |
Harald Beyer |
|
Energy |
Rodrigo Alvarez |
|
Environment |
María Ignacia Benítez |
|
Finance |
Felipe Larraín |
|
Foreign affairs |
Álfredo Moreno |
|
General secretary of the government |
Andrés Chadwick |
|
General secretary of the presidency |
Cristián Larroulet |
|
Health |
Jaime Mañalich |
|
Interior & cabinet chief |
Rodrigo Hinzpeter |
|
Justice |
Teodoro Ribera |
|
Labour |
Evelyn Matthei |
|
Mining |
Hernán de Solminihac |
|
National property |
Catalina Parot |
|
Planning and Cooperation |
Joaquín Lavin |
|
Public works |
Laurence Golborne |
|
Transport & communications |
Pedro Pablo Errazuriz |
|
| National Services for Women | Carolina Schmidt | |
Country Statistics
2009 |
2010 |
||||
GDP |
|||||
Nominal GDP (US$ bn) |
160.9 |
203.4 |
|||
Nominal GDP (Ps bn) |
90,220 |
103,806 |
|||
Real GDP growth (%) |
-1.7 |
5.2 |
|||
Expenditure on GDP (% real change) |
|||||
Private consumption |
0.9 |
10.4 |
|||
Government consumption |
7.5 |
3.3 |
|||
Gross fixed investment |
-15.9 |
18.8 |
|||
Exports of goods & services |
-6.4 |
1.9 |
|||
Imports of goods & services |
-14.6 |
29.5 |
|||
Origin of GDP (% real change) |
|||||
Agriculture |
-2.7 |
-2.5 |
|||
Industry |
-4.5 |
1.5 |
|||
Services |
0.7 |
6.3 |
|||
Population and income |
|||||
Population (m) |
16.9 |
17.1 |
|||
GDP per head (US$ at PPP) |
14,339 |
15,137 |
|||
Recorded unemployment (av; %) |
9.6 |
7.1 |
|||
Fiscal indicators (% of GDP) |
|||||
Public-sector revenue |
20.3 |
22.4 |
|||
Public-sector expenditure |
24.8 |
22.7 |
|||
Public-sector balance |
-4.5 |
-0.3 |
|||
Gross public debt |
6.2 |
9.2 |
|||
Prices and financial indicators |
|||||
Exchange rate Ps:US$ (end-period) |
506.43 |
468.37 |
|||
Consumer prices (end-period; %) |
-1.5 |
3 |
|||
Producer prices (av; %) |
0.3 |
-2 |
|||
Stock of money M1 (% change) |
22.9 |
20.6 |
|||
Stock of money M2 (% change) |
-5.3 |
10.9 |
|||
Money market interest rate (av; %) |
0.5 |
1.8 |
|||
Current account (US$ m) |
|||||
Trade balance |
14,117 |
15,855 |
|||
Goods: exports fob |
54,004 |
71,028 |
|||
Goods: imports fob |
-39,888 |
-55,174 |
|||
Services balance |
-1,444 |
-1,019 |
|||
Income balance |
-11,666 |
-15,423 |
|||
Current transfers balance |
1,616 |
4,390 |
|||
Current-account balance |
2,570 |
3,802 |
|||
External debt (US$ m) |
|||||
Debt stock |
74,066 |
87,204 |
|||
Debt service paid |
11,886 |
14,561 |
|||
Principal repayments |
11,160 |
13,732 |
|||
Interest |
726 |
829 |
|||
International reserves (US$m) |
|||||
Total international reserves |
25,292 |
27,828 |
|||
|
Sources: Banco Central de Chile, Instituto |
|||||
Economist Intelligence Unit 2011 |
|||||
NZ Exports (FOB) |
Total: NZ$62 Million (year to December 2011) |
Main Exports |
Harvesting and threshing machinery NZ$6.8 m Cheese $6.3 m Butter, dairy spreads NZ$4.6 m Seeds, fruit and spores NZ$6.1 m Electrical goods NZ$4 m Agricultural, horticulture, etc machinery NZ$ 4 m |
NZ Imports (CIF) |
Total: NZ$65 million (year to December 2011) |
Main Imports |
Shipping equipment NZ$ 18 m Grapes NZ$8.4 m Plywood, veneered panels etc NZ$8.6 m Fruit and Nuts NZ$4.3m Preparations used in animal feeding NZ$3.4m Jams and Marmalades NZ$2.12 m Wood NZ$1.3 m |
The New Zealand Embassy in Santiago is responsible for Chile as well as Colombia and Peru [external link].
The Chilean Embassy in Wellington is responsible for New Zealand.
The New Zealand government's Safe Travel website has comprehensive travel information including advice on the safety and security of travel to Chile [external link].
Further enquiries may be directed to:
Consular Division:
Tel: +64 4 439 8000
Fax: +64 4 439 8532
cons@mfat.govt.nz
New Zealanders and Chileans travelling to each other's country for less than three months do not need to apply for a visa beforehand.
[1] Palacio La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secretariat of the Government. It occupies an entire block in downtown Santiago, in the area known as Civic District.
