PUERTO VARAS, July 2, 2016 (Xinhua) -- (L-R) Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, Peru's President Ollanta Humala, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos attend the closing ceremony of the 11th Presidential Summit of the Pacific Alliance in Puerto Varas, Chile, on July 1, 2016. The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc uniting four Latin American nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, announced on Friday its intention to bolster trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region, especially with China. (Xinhua/Jorge Villegas)
by Omar Mendoza, Leng Tong
PUERTO VARAS, Chile, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc uniting four Latin American nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, announced on Friday its intention to bolster trade relations with the Asia-Pacific region, especially with China.
At the group's annual summit, the leaders of Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia also forged an integrationist path forward to avoid the emergence of isolationist tendencies such as Britain's recent exit from the European Union.
Founded in 2011, the regional bloc accounts for 37 percent of Latin America's gross domestic product.
The group has removed tariffs on 92 percent of all goods exported between its members, and aims to eliminate all tariffs within 17 years.
BOOSTING TIES WITH CHINA
The alliance is also conceived as a means to bolster trade with Pacific Rim nations in Asia, especially China.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, whose country took over the bloc's rotating presidency from Peru at the summit, said she would push to expand into the Asia-Pacific basin markets, as well as the 49 observer countries and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).
Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who is to take office later this month, indicated on Thursday that his foreign and trade policies would prioritize China.
"My first trip abroad as president will probably be to China," Kuczynski told participants at the alliance's business forum held in the southern Chilean resort of Frutillar in the lead to the summit.
"We are an economy of immense natural resources that we have to industrialize. That's not easy and to do that we are going to have to collaborate with the great buyers of our exports, which in large part is China," Kuczynski said, cited by the online Peruvian daily Cronica Viva.
Kuczynski described the alliance as a "wonderful" initiative that could help South American countries together take up the challenge of promoting trade.
"With the exception of Mexico, we are in a corner of the world, far from the markets," said Kuczynski, calling for greater regional integration to better overcome such disadvantages as distance.
Relations between China and the Pacific Alliance will continue to expand, Andres Rebolledo, director of international economic relations of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The members "are interested in jointly operating in the Asian markets," he said.
"That joint activity with China and the rest of Asia will continue to be very important for our government," he added.
TOURISM SEES BOOMING
Despite the ocean that divides China and the Pacific Alliance, tourism between the two sides appears to be booming recently.
Earlier in this month, Peru's tourism and trade promotion agency PromPeru announced the number of Chinese travelers to the Pacific Alliance countries is expected to grow by 15 percent in 2016.
"This year, we estimate a growth of more than 15 percent in Chinese tourists to countries of the Pacific Alliance, or more than 170,000 Chinese who will be visiting the four countries combined," Director of PromPeru Maria Soledad Acosta was quoted as saying by the Peruvian daily El Comercio.
In the first quarter of 2016, Chinese tourists to the four nations grew by an average of more than 35 percent, according to the report.
The increase was most marked in Peru, which had seen a 43 percent jump in Chinese visitors compared with the first quarter in 2015.
The alliance countries will continue to promote themselves in the Chinese tourism market, said Acosta.
INTEGRATION VS ISOLATION
Addressing the business forum on Thursday, Bachelet said greater integration could improve the living standards among member countries, especially in a time marked by increasing protectionism.
"When you look at Brexit, when you look at what's going on in the United States with support for Donald Trump, (their popularity comes from) people of modest means from rural areas who have been marginalized by globalization," said Bachelet.
"It is obvious that globalization is important and integration is important, but they have to create real opportunities and real rights," said Bachelet, adding "our integration initiative is in full development."
The alliance leaders, said Bachelet, play an important role in the integration of the four countries and in creating a better future with progress and opportunities despite the world's poor economic outlook.
"We have talked about volatility, we have talked about uncertainty, and I believe we have to learn to live with that," she added.
