Xifres de comerç exterior de Xile

Foreign Trade in Figures

Chile has a very open economy, highly dependent on international trade, which represented 64.4% of the country's GDP in 2021 (World Bank). The country mainly exports copper (which accounts for 56.4% of exports), fish fillets and other fish meat (3.3%), iron ores (2.6%), chemical wood pulp (2.5%), and apricots, cherries, and peaches (2.3%). Imports involve petroleum oils (10.3%), motor cars and other vehicles (8.3%), telephone sets (3.7%), petroleum gas (2.9%), and automatic data processing machines (2.4%). According to IMF Foreign Trade Forecasts, the volume of exports of goods and services decreased by 0.4% in 2022 and is expected to increase by 1.3% in 2023 and 3.5% in 2024, while the volume of imports of goods and services decreased by 2.9% in 2022, a rate that's expected to drop to -7.5% in 2023 before increasing to -1.4% in 2024.

Chile's top trade partners are China, the United States, Brazil, Japan, Argentina, South Korea, and Germany. Chile has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with several important economies, notably the European Union, the United States, China, and South Korea and is a member of the Pacific Alliance since 2012 with Mexico, Colombia and Peru. Its comparative economic advantages (revenue from mining, competitive and counter-seasonal agriculture sector) have given it access to the large markets of North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific (and recently to other South American countries, especially Brazil). Chile also signed a trade continuity agreement with the UK, ensuring continued trade relations. Challenges to Chilean trade include replacing the failed Union of South American Nations with ProSur to strengthen economic integration and trade relationships in the region (Buenos Aires Times). Additionally, with the world’s largest known copper reserves, Chile is a commodity-based, export-driven economy, which heightened Chile's exposure to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, since its economic performance is interlaced with patterns of global demand.

Chile's trade balance remains structurally positive, and attained USD 10,528 million in 2021, a decrease from the previous year, mainly due to a drop in copper output, the country's main export. Imports of goods and services increased 31.3% in 2021, while exports decreased by 1.5% (World Bank). According to WTO data, in 2021, Chile exported USD 94,6 million worth of goods, while its imports stood at USD 91,1 million. As with regards to imports and exports of services in the same year, those amounted to USD 15,7 million and USD 6,6 million respectively.