The Minister of Agriculture of Chile, Antonio Walker, said he expected Chile won't have to foot the bill for the commercial war between the United States and China.
"So far, we do not know how it will affect us, but it can't be good, because we know how it started but not how it will end," the Chilean authority told reporters.
"It is difficult to quantify how it will hit us as an export economy," he added.
"We hope that Chile doesn't have to foot the bill of this commercial war of these two powers. We have a very successful history with the United States and lately with China, regarding our exports, so we hope that it won't affect us," he said.
The Minister of Agriculture stressed that Chile believes in a free, open and globalized economy and that "for us these two powers are very important from the commercial point of view because both China and the United States are two very important markets for the Chilean agriculture."
Walker said that he spoke with the Directorate General of International Economic Relations (Direcon) of Chile, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prochile, the institution in charge of positioning the South American country's products abroad, to be informed about the international conflict.
The Chilean minister also highlighted the 27% increase in Chilean agricultural, forestry and fishing exports during the last period.
Currently, Chile sends table grapes, cherries, plums, kiwis, avocados, apples, blueberries, and nectarines to China. In the 2016-2017 season the country exported more than 231,000 tons of these products to China.
On July 6, the United States launched the largest trade war in economic history by imposing additional tariffs of 25% on Chinese products from sectors such as aerospace, computer technology and auto parts for a value of US $ 34 billions.
In response, China announced that, starting last Friday, it would apply additional tariffs to some imports from the United States for the same value, including agricultural products, vehicles, and aquatic products.
Source: americaeconomia.com