ABSTRACT

This chapter indicates that since 1990, US imperialistic actions in Chile have not disappeared and that, moreover, they have become even more successful in restricting Chile's state sovereignty and imposing a free trade agenda upon it. It shows how the interests of Chile's export capitalist class in securing free trade rules were complementary to US informal imperialism from the 1990s to the end of the 2000s. The chapter focuses on the US pressures and Chile's loss of economic sovereignty during the world trade organization and the Chile-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It shows the collaboration of Chile's export capitalist class in accepting and promoting this loss of sovereignty. The case of Chile was used as a starting point for a series of other FTAs that the United States signed with Latin American countries in order to establish a supranational commitment to free trade and the protection of investor property in the region.