The foreign affairs committee of the Chilean Senate said Wednesday that it had unanimously approved a free trade agreement with China.

The initiative must now be examined by the Senate's finance committee. It will then await the approval of the whole Senate before it can come into effect in 2007.

Once the agreement comes into force, China will immediately be able to deliver 50 percent of its exports to Chile tariff-free. The remaining tariffs on exports will be lifted in stages, with cut-off dates of one year, five years and 10 years.

Textiles, light engineering products, wheat flour and sugar, however, are excluded from the deal.

Chile wants to increase and diversify its exports to China because it is now only selling copper, fish flour and cellulose to the Asian country, President of the Senate foreign affairs committee Roberto Munoz Barra said.

China is already the largest importer of Chilean products in Asia, where some 36 percent of Chile's exports go, Munoz said.

He deemed that the free trade agreement with China would boost Chile's "visibility in nations like South Korea, India and Japan."

The approval in the foreign affairs committee was within the timetable set out for the agreement to complete the legislative process, in order for it to take effect in 2007, said Munoz.

Source: Xinhua