Beriestain, the director of Chile Leather, Shoe and Leather Goods Federation, said the establishment of a free trade zone between Chile and China will bring excellent opportunities for Chile to export leather material to China, which will hopefully allow Chile to gain some market share in China.

It is said that during the first nine months in 2005 the import of shoes imported to Chile from China increased 15%, compared with the same period of last year. In 2004, Chile imported 46 million pairs of shoes from China, covering 80% of the country’s total import.