Chile hopes to start negotiations in November 2006 for a free-trade agreement with Japan, Chilean Ambassador to Japan Daniel Carvallo said Wednesday.
A joint study group to assess the feasibility of an FTA was created last year by Prime Minister JunichiroKoizumi and President Ricardo Lagos.
"Hopefully, the two countries will be able to announce the start of negotiations sometime next year. . . . That is what I will focus most of my efforts on," Carvallo said during a visit to The Japan Times.
"The right timing and right setting is November" because leaders of the two countries will meet on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit, Carvallo said.
Japan would have much to gain from a bilateral FTA with his country, he stressed. Apples, for example, grow in different seasons from Japan in Chile, and Japanese consumers would be able to enjoy the fruit year-round, Carvallo said.