Beyond trade relations: insertion of the Pacific Alliance members into the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

The twentieth-first century has been deemed as the “Pacific century”. The Pacific Alliance is not unrelated to this phenomenon and, among other reasons, is meant to serve for a better insertion of its member-states into the international arena, and more specifically, into the Asian side of the Pacific. This insertion tends to be explained in terms of trade, which has increased over the last years and plays a central role in the relations among member-states. However, trade alone does not cover the wide range of relations that Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru have with the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, their foreign policy is not limited to the search for new markets and economic partners. This article presents a systematization of the treaties signed among the current Pacific Alliance members and China, South Corea and Japan between 1990 and 2016. Based on a comparative analysis of the treaties, it is observed that trade has in fact a very low participation as part of the overall relations between the Pacific Alliance and the Asia-Pacific region.