The Foreign Ministry’s Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, and the Undersecretary for Foreign Trade of the Economy Ministry, Juan Carlos Baker, took part in a meeting of the high-level group (GAN) of the Pacific Alliance held in Santiago, Chile.
The GAN, made up of the Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, took stock of the work done to meet the commitments agreed to during the Cali Summit held last June in Colombia.
In addition, they discussed the preparations for the first round of negotiations with the candidates for Associated States (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore) to be held in late October and welcomed the Joint Declaration that was signed in New York in mid-September to intensify cooperation between the Pacific Alliance and Spain.
At the meeting, the deputy ministers began to analyze the Pacific Alliance’s strategic vision for 2030 in order to coordinate with the private sector in accordance with the Cali Declaration signed by the presidents last June.
The GAN also met with the Pacific Alliance Business Council, representatives from the private sectors of all four countries and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Pacific Alliance is a regional integration initiative comprised of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru; the four countries together have 220 million potential consumers and combined have the eighth largest economy in the world. The group’s per capita GDP is USD $8,800 and trade totals USD $1.075 billion.