Conventional wisdom tells us that foreign policy-making is, normally, restricted to the Executive, a trend especially noticeable when in regard to Latin America. The aim of this essay, therefore, is to question such assumption, even thought the Chilean Legislature has at its disposal week institutional capacity - ex post control. The argument is based on a thorough analysis of the Chilean Congress while dealing with trade policy, during the negotiations of the Economic Complementarity Agreements (ECA), undersigned by Chile during the 1990s, and on the discussions of tariff reductions, voted in 1991 and 1998. The research attempts to appoint the Legislative Branch as a relevant political actor, capable of influencing the policy-making of trade policy.
Foreign Policy; Trade Policy; Congress; Latin America; Chile
