LatinNews Daily - 27 July 2026

*Chile’s government has been negotiating with Washington to secure exemptions for products such as salmon, grapes, blueberries, wine, poultry meat, and salt from US tariffs, according to Paula Estévez, Chile’s deputy secretary for international economic relations. In an interview with Chile’s T13 Radio, Estévez stated that: “We are negotiating bilaterally with the US… to move our products that are affected by the surcharge... to the other list, which is annex A, the exempted ones.” The new US tariffs of 10% to 12.5%, announced by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on 23 July, apply to 60 economies accounting for 99.4% of US imports, following investigations into insufficient enforcement of forced labour import bans. Chile faces the higher 12.5% rate, for having “failed to adopt a forced labor import prohibition”, though Estévez said the country has “a solid institutional framework… and a firm commitment to the eradication of forced labour.” Estévez stated that around 53.5% of Chile’s roughly 1,500 export products to the US - including copper, its main export - remain exempt from the new tariffs. In a statement released on 23 July, Chile’s secretariat for international economic relations rejected the new tariffs, stating they do not reflect the country's “solid labour institutions” and “robust regulatory framework” against forced labour. It added that the measure was “part of a broad-based trade policy and in no way constitutes a measure specifically directed against Chile”.

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