Chile has officially announced that it will be accepting beef exports from the EU, upon publication of the agreed definitions of meat marketing standards in the Chilean Official Journal.

The standards were the last major hurdle to resuming trade from the EU into Chile.

The decision was made after commissioners Vytenis Andriukaitis, Cecilia Malmström and Phil Hogan have reached an understanding. The three parties are responsible for food safety, trade and agriculture, .

Although Chile has not been a major market for EU beef, the new initiative taken up by the European Commission would allow EU beef exporters to consider Chile as a potential new outlet for their meat export.

The EU was unable to export its beef meat to Chile due to certain specific requirements set out in Chilean legislation, which states that meat cuts must fulfill certain nomenclature and classification of bovine carcasses.

The terminology and criteria contradicted with those applied in the EU.

Both officials have now agreed on a correlation between Chilean and EU names for the cuts and classification of the carcases, which will now allow EU exporters to trade again with this preferential partner.

The decision is reported to come at a time when both the EU and Chile were planning to modernise their Association Agreement that was in place since 2002, and make further advancements in their cooperation and trade and investment flows.