ProChile Strengthens Mexico-Chile Trade Relations

ProChile’s Trade Office in Mexico held its Mexico-Chile 2023 Business Meeting, where over 40 Chilean exporters and 100 Mexican importers met to strengthen trade relations between the two countries. The event celebrated food innovation and women’s leadership, which were the central themes of this year’s meeting.

The Mexico-Chile Business Meeting is a business space that brings Chilean goods and services closer to one of the markets with the best growth prospects in Latin America. Mexico is an attractive market for Chilean companies, according to ProChile. Mexico is Chile’s eighth largest trading partner in goods and services. It is also considered a hub for expanding international operations to North and Central America due to its location and network of trade agreements. 

Chile’s exports of non-copper goods and services to Mexico increased by 46.1% in 2022 compared to 2021. Chile and Mexico have a strong trade integration based on bilateral and multilateral agreements, which provide tariff, tax and sanitary benefits, including the Pacific Alliance, CPTPP and Double Taxation Agreement. Mexico has been one of the destinations where Chilean service entrepreneurs have successfully developed their projects. 

Mexico also has a reliable image of Chile regarding trade policy, which is valuable when making business decisions. The topics discussed at the meeting included suppliers and solutions for logistics, food, forestry, wood, Healthtech, Edtech, Fintech, food innovation and tourism.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), Chile stands out in female entrepreneurship as the country helps them to have more impact in their respective sectors. “I see many women here and I love it. I know how hard it is for a woman to reach a leadership position and that is why we are striving to have more and more women leaders,” said Beatriz Sanchez, Chilean Ambassador to Mexico, during the event.

Although, in recent years, an important effort has been made to reduce the gender gap in the business sector, there are still many obstacles that women have to face to participate equally in the labor market. According to a study carried out by Entel, 51% of Chilean women say that they do not have the necessary support network to export, which is why movements such as those developed by ProChile are so relevant. However, the Mexican market still needs much work in terms of promoting female entrepreneurs, considering that, according to INEGI, only 19% of entrepreneurs in Mexico are women. 

The issue of sustainability also played an important role during the business meeting, considering that Chile is in 28th place globally in sustainable development, according to the Sustainable Development Report 2021. Mexico is in 74th place.