Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Monday signed into law a free trade agreement with China, which gives Chile 's exports almost free access to China's massive market.

"The treaty which we have signed is very important for the working people of this country," Bachelet told a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley Rioseco and Finance Minister Andres Velasco Branes.

"We are convinced that an agreement of this nature will benefit the majority of Chile ans," she added.

The agreement will strengthen Chile's international position by facilitating Chile an products' access to the Chinese market, the president said, noting the accord is a "milestone" in Chile 's trade expansion, which is "linking us in a privileged way to a country that already is the world's fourth largest economy."

The deal, the first of its kind between China and a Latin American country, was inked in Busan, South Korea, on November 18 last year, just before the opening of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Under the accord, ratified by Chile's parliament on August 9, 92 percent of Chile's exports to China are tariff-free. The figure will rise to 99 percent by the end of 10 years' time, while some 97 percent of Chinese exports to Chile will be tariff-free after the same time span.

Trade between Chile and China reached US$7.14 billion in 2005, up from US$5.3 billion in 2004 and US$3.5 billion in 2003.

In the first quarter of 2006, bilateral trade soared to over US$3.6 billion. China is now Chile's second largest trading partner after the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)