Codelco Lobbying for US Free Trade Deal

Chile's state copper corporation Codelco is lobbying the country's foreign ministry to speed up talks on a free trade agreement with the US, El Diario (Chile) reported. Codelco's objective is to see the 1% US duty on Chilean refined copper eliminated, the paper quoted the company's CFO Juan Eduardo Herrera as saying. "We'd like to see this thing resolved as soon as possible, as it would benefit not only Codelco but all copper producers," Herrera reportedly said. "With a free trade deal we could increase our US market share from 5% to just over 20%." The US imports around 1Mt of copper a year, and in 1999 Chilean copper accounted for nearly 400,000t of that figure. Herrera also said Codelco expects to globally sell US$3.4bn worth of copper next year.