Australia-Chile FTA now in force

In June 2008 IP Tango reported on the conclusion of the Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement. This FTA came into force on 6 March 2009. Since Chile has already entered into similar agreements with China, Japan, India, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore, the Pacific seaboard nation is well placed to become a business platform between Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Now that the FTA is in force, 97% of Chilean products can enter Australia without custom fees.

The agreement contains a detailed chapter on intellectual property, which states that the parties (both of which are now major wine producers) agree to protect IP rights in an effective, transparent and appropriate manner, reiterating their rights and obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and other multilateral treaties to which they are party.

In addition, each party is to make reasonable efforts, in accordance with its domestic law, to ratify or adhere to the Madrid Protocol on international trade mark registration and to recognize the importance of the Joint Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of Well-Known Marks (1999), as adopted by the Assembly of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the general assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Source: note by Sergio Amenábar, Estudio Federico Villaseca, Santiago, in World Trademark Review.