President highlights Chile as Korea's 1st FTA partner during Santiago visit

President Lee Jae Myung underscored Chile's significance as Korea's first-ever free trade agreement (FTA) partner, saying the South American nation recognized Korea's potential long before it gained global prominence.

Speaking at a dinner meeting with members of the Korean community in Santiago Wednesday (local time), the president's remarks came during his three-nation South America tour this week, which also includes Brazil and Argentina.

Lee is seeking to expand trade and investment with Mercosur, a South American trade bloc, by capitalizing on the complementary nature of the two economies — Mercosur in agriculture, food production, energy and critical minerals, and Korea in advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, shipbuilding and batteries.

"Chile was not only the first Latin American country to recognize the Republic of Korea in 1949, a year after our government was established, but also Korea's first FTA partner," Lee said.

The bilateral FTA took effect in April 2004, years before Korea's FTAs with major trading partners such as the United States, which entered into force i ...