Business Socialist: Chile's President Michelle Bachelet seeks friends in Philly, Del.

(UPDATE from my column in Tuesday's Inquirer. Statement from Ambassador Valdes follows.)  Chile's President, Michelle Bachelet, won a second (non-consecutive) term in a landslide vote in 2013. While Chile may be the Latin American nation most like the U.S. -- especially California, with its Pacific climate and mix of resource industries -- Bachelet would probably be unelectable in a national vote here. That hasn't stopped her from making friends or seeking more in export industries:

Her Pacific nation is home to robust capitalists - mine owners, winemakers, fruit growers whose Southern Hemisphere seasons enable them to supply Americans in winter - as well as militant communist and anarchist groups, which press hard, and often successfully, for taxing the rich to pay for college tuition, retirement plans, health insurance. A socialist and a single mother, Bachelet governs in coalition with the Christian Democrats. On Monday in New York, she presided over an anti-war meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

But in Wilmington and Philadelphia this week, Bachelet is all business. At a warehouse at the Delaware port on Tuesday, she drew a crowd of U.S. and Chilean businesspeople and workers, and a collection of pro-free-trade Democrats - led by U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D., Del.), U.S. Rep. John Carney (D., Del.), and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who worked as a young banker in Chile in the 1980s before becoming a Comcast executive.

To welcome their President, scores of bright-jacketed Chilean expatriate workers who inspect fruit at the warehouses their companies share in Wilmington, and at the Holt family port complex in Gloucester City, turned out to greet Bachelet, along with a Chilean maritime delegation.

How do American workers feel about the increased Chilean workforce here? "They are never a threat; there's enough work for everybody," Julius Cephas, president of International Longshoremans' Association Local 1694, told me. He said both American and Chilean workers are pushing to expand the Wilmington port so it can handle more cargo. The local's business agent, Eric Dorsey, says the union workforce has grown in recent years, from several hundred to around 1,000, thanks largely to Chilean trade.

Philadelphia-area ports are also looking for more cargo to send to Chile, noted congressman Carney. "That's a big issue," he told me.

Yet the United States has so far gotten the better of this particular trade pact. Chile's yearly imports from the U.S. have risen sixfold, to $15 billion, since the countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2003, according to Juan Gabriel Valdes-Soublette, Chile's ambassador to the U.S. U.S. imports from Chile have risen less and not quite as fast - to $9.7 billion, four times 2003 levels.

Bachelet wants to boost U.S. imports to make the relationship more balanced. "We are convinced we can do much more," she told the crowd before leaving for a Chilean-American business dinner in Philadelphia.

While Delaware's conservative top Democrats mostly back free trade, the head of the state's largest municipal government, New County Council Executive Tom Gordon, a former police chief, blames trade deals for wiping out two auto manufacturing plants and a steel mill from the county since 2007. "Free-trade agreements have destroyed our well-paying factory jobs," he told me.

But Gordon also agreed that the Chile produce trade, at least, has been good for Delaware. Gesturing to pallets of sweet South American grapes that formed the backdrop to Bachelet's appearance, Gordon concluded, "Up here, we don't grow fruit in the wintertime."

EARLIER: The nation of Chile, on South America's Pacific coast, exports winter fruit (our winter is their summer) through the Delaware River ports. U.S. imports from Chile and especially U.S. exports to Chile have grown rapidly since the nations signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2003 . Chile's President, Michelle Bachelet of the Socialist Party, will be in Wilmington the morning of Tuesday Jan. 20, to visit the port and praise recent reductions on import fees, and seek more diverse trade. Here's a statement about the President's visit from Juan Gabriel Valdés-Soublette, Chlie's Ambassador to the U.S.:

President Michelle Bachelet will be visiting the Port of Wilmington in Delaware, and the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Wilmington, which, as main ports of entry for Chilean national products, enjoy a strong and historic trade relationship with Chile.

Through Wilmington, most of the fruits grown in the Southern Hemisphere enter the United States, meeting consumer demand between the months of November and April in the North. The port welcomes near 16 million cases of Chilean fruit each winter, which is later distributed in states as far West as the Mississippi River, and North to Canada.

According to the Association of Chilean Fruit Exporters (Asoex - Asociación de Exportadores de Frutas de Chile), the logistics center overseeing the distribution of South American fruit includes not only the Port of Wilmington but also the Port of Philadelphia and the Port of Gloucester in New Jersey. More than 500,000 jobs in Chile, and 10,000 jobs in the United States, depend at least partly on this trade.

President Bachelet's visit marks the first visit from a Chilean leader to the Port, just three weeks after the "zero tariff" comes into effect for all Chilean products entering the United States. This is the last stage of the tariff reduction schedule established after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between both countries in June 2003.

Complete tariff liberalization was reached this year for new products, like canned peaches, tomato sauce and wine. Avocados, powdered milk, condensed milk, whey and cheese have also begun to be exported without tariff restrictions.

A decade after the FTA signing, bilateral trade exchange between both nations has increased more than fourfold, reaching $25 billion. Chilean exports to the United States totaled $9.7 billion dollars. Chile imports even more from the United States, and imports from the U.S. have grown more rapidly than exports to the U.S.: since the free trade agreement Chile's imports from the United States increased sixfold, and now exceed $15.1 billion.

Additionally, the full enforcement of the Free Trade Agreement has allowed the opening of new markets for citrus fruits, vegetable oil, blueberries and meat. This has led to more product diversification and ongoing expansion.

Today, the United States is the single largest direct foreign investor in Chile with $24.5 billion invested in mining, utility industries (electricity, gas and water), retail, and the insurance market. The United States is considered a strategic partner, and more.

However, the issue of the income tax treaty is still pending. Signed in 2010 but awaiting approval by both Congresses, it would be the first bilateral income tax treaty between the United States and Chile, and only the second U.S. tax treaty with a South American country.

This is a brief summary of the importance of Philadelphia and its region for Chile. The President's visit will not only reinforce the trade relationship between our country and the three States but it will also encourage bilateral cooperation in other areas, such as energy, education, agriculture, and a regional liaison towards the strengthening of the existing strategic alliance.