Chile’s Kast courts China day after US hits exports with forced labour tariff

Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast received China’s ambassador to Santiago, Niu Qingbao, at the La Moneda Palace on Friday morning, in an encounter that lasted more than an hour and marked the first meeting between the two men since the right-wing leader took office in March.According to the presidency, Kast, Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Patricio Torres used the meeting to review their bilateral agenda, the minister’s coming trip to China and the preparations for the president’s participation in the Apec leaders’ meeting, to be held from November 18-19 in Shenzhen.Kast sat down with the ambassador a day after the US Trade Representative (USTR) confirmed a 12.5 per cent tariff on Chilean imports, a measure the agency justified by what it called Chile’s failure to prohibit imports produced with forced labour.The levy, which also covers 59 other countries, took effect on Friday and leaves out copper, the country’s largest export, while affecting the salmon, timber and food industries.The USTR first proposed it on June 3, opening a window for the Chilean foreign ministry and the export associations to make their case.Why the US is worried about China’s growing influence in South AmericaSantiago said in a statement that it would keep talking to the Trump administration to improve access conditions, including the exclusion of products it considers essential to the country’s export basket.