Chile's government is a representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Chile is both head of state and head of government, and of a formal multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and by their cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Congress. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature of Chile.
Under the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is exclusively in charge of its internal affairs and external relations, whilst the central government of China is responsible for its foreign affairs and defence. As a separate customs territory, Hong Kong maintains and develops relations with foreign states and regions, and plays an active role in such international organisations as World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in its own right under the name of Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong participates in 16 projects of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade. It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948. The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.
Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista is a Mexican politician and rector of the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP). He served as Mexico's Secretary of Economy from 2000 to 2002 and Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2006.
Robert Bruce Zoellick is an American public official and lawyer who was the 11th president of the World Bank Group, a position he held from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2012. He was previously a managing director of Goldman Sachs, United States Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, from February 7, 2001, until February 22, 2005. Zoellick has been a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since ending his term with the World Bank. He is currently a Senior Counselor at Brunswick Group.
José Miguel Insulza Salinas is a Chilean politician, lawyer, and academic serving as a senator for the Arica y Parinacota Region since 2018. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1999 and Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1999 to 2000 under president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, as Minister of the Interior from 2000 to 2005 under president Ricardo Lagos, and as Secretary General of the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015.
James Leonard Bacchus is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida from 1991 to 1995. He was a founding member and twice chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland from 1995 to 2003. He later became a fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
Pascal Lamy is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed Lamy for a second 4-year term, beginning on 1 September 2009. He was then succeeded by Roberto Azevêdo. Pascal Lamy was also European Commissioner for Trade for 5 years, from 13 September 1999 to 22 November 2004 and is an advisor for the transatlantic think-tank European Horizons, as well as currently serving as the Honorary President of the Paris-based think tank, Notre Europe.
Rufus Hawkins Yerxa is an American lawyer and former U.S. government and international official. He is currently a Senior Advisor with the global consulting firm McClarty Associates. He served as Deputy United States Trade Representative during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton Administrations, and served for 11 years as Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). From 2016 to 2021 he was President of the National Foreign Trade Council.
Canada–Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) is a trade agreement between Canada and Chile. It was signed on December 5, 1996, in Santiago, Chile and came into effect on July 5, 1997. Tariffs on 75 percent of bilateral trade were immediately eliminated. It was Canada's first free trade agreement with a Latin American nation, and was Chile's first full free trade agreement. Over the first decade, trade between Canada and Chile increased more than 300%, with the trade of goods rising from $718 million in 1996 to $2.7 billion in 2010. Bilateral service trade increased to $164 million by 2005. Canadian investments in Chile reached $13.3 billion in 2010, and Canada has been the largest source of new investment in Chile.
Zoran Jolevski is a Macedonian diplomat and the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Macedonia. Prior to his appointment as Minister of Defense, he served as Macedonia's Ambassador to the United States of America. In November 2008, he was appointed chief negotiator to the Macedonia naming dispute, and in 2011 he was appointed Ambassador to the United Mexican States and as Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States. He served as Secretary General of the late Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski from 2000–2004. He holds a Ph.D. in International Economy from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. He is married to Suzana Jolevska, and together they have two sons, Pero (1988) and Filip (1992).
Alphonse Berns is a senior Luxembourg diplomat in the rank of Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. He has served as his country's Ambassador in Washington, DC, London, Brussels, to NATO as well as to the UN and WTO in Geneva. Currently he holds the position of Director General for Fiscal Policy in the Ministry of Finance in Luxembourg.
Ricardo Andrés Lagos Weber, son of former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, is a politician who served as the Ministry General Secretariat of Government of Chile in the administration of former President Michelle Bachelet after having worked for Bachelet's 2005-2006 campaign. He is trained in law and economics, and has served the majority of his government career in economic positions. He was also an organizer and the senior representative for Chile at the Annual Meeting of APEC held in Chile in 2004, in addition to being one of the architects of the free trade agreements that Chile signed with the United States and the European Union as the head of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Trade Policy. He is a member of the Party for Democracy (PPD). Between March 2016 and March 2017 he was President of the Senate of Chile.
Igor Garafulic Olivares is a Chilean economist, academic, and former intendant of the Santiago Metropolitan Region under the 2006 - 2010 administration of president Michelle Bachelet.
Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril, born 5 October 1961, is a former Kenyan cabinet secretary, lawyer and a diplomat of Somali descent. She is the immediate former Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture in Kenya. She previously served as chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration and the World Trade Organization's General Council, as well as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. She served as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Kenya from May 2013 to February 2018, when President Uhuru Kenyatta, after re-election, moved her to the Education docket. In March 2019, she was moved to the Sports Ministry replacing Rashid Echesa. The KNEC Director, George Magoha replaced her in the Education docket.
Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo is a Brazilian career diplomat who served as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 2013 until 2020. Since 2020, he has been Executive Vice President and Director of Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo.
Karan Krishna Bhatia is an American attorney and former senior official in the Bush administration. He currently leads public policy and government relations for Google. He served as the deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2005 to 2007, credited with leading the negotiation of the United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement. Additional appointments include Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs where he served from 2003 to 2005 and deputy under secretary of commerce for industry and security from 2001 to 2003. He served a total of six years in the Bush Administration before returning to the private sector in 2008 to lead government affairs for General Electric.
Gonzalo Alfonso Gutiérrez Reinel is a Peruvian diplomat. From June 23, 2014 to April 2, 2015 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Ollanta Humala. In 2009 he was appointed Peruvian ambassador to the United Nations, in New York. From 2011 to 2014 he was the ambassador of Peru to the People's Republic of China and non-resident ambassador to Mongolia, Pakistan and North Korea. From 2017 to 2022 he was the appointed ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. As of May 1st 2023 he was appointed Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Peru.
Lin Yi-fu is a Taiwanese politician. A member of the Kuomintang, he served as Minister of Economic Affairs in the presidential administration of Chen Shui-bian from 2002 to 2004.
Yoo Myung-hee is a South Korean politician who served as the Minister for Trade of South Korea from 2019 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold the position. Over the past 25 years, she worked in various government agencies since she passed the Korean state civil servant exam in 1991. She is also noted as being the final two candidates in the 2020 World Trade Organization leadership race.
