Pacific time: Chile wants to pull Asia--all of it--into a growing global trade orbit.

Seaweed marmalade may not sound that appetizing to most, but one small business in Chile is hoping its sweet-tasting, high-protein concoction will make a splash in Asian markets. Asians already are aficionados of Chilean seafood, including jibia or giant squid, and seaweed. "Our seas are brimming with these products," says Nadim Montecinos, general manager of Comercial Blue Fish, a 20-employee company in the port town of San Antonio. "jibia practically doesn't let other fish survive and seaweed has become a literal weed on our shores. But in Asia these products are a delicacy."

Looking to expand horizons, Chilean President Bicardo Lagos has proposed an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area. It helps that Chile was the first country in the hemisphere to sign a free trade agreement with an Asian country, South Korea, a deal it ratified in April of last year. Already, that deal has brought business for Comercial Blue Fish, which started exporting jibia to South Korea in August 2004. 'An Asia-Pacific free trade agreement would be spectacular for us," says Montecinos, who's also looking to plug his seaweed marmalade among Chinese importers.

China is definitely the goal, where a huge domestic market looms. Chile's trade with China has already increased four-fold in the past decade, becoming its third-most-important trading partner last year. Two-way trade is US$3.13 billion. And Chile is now negotiating a bilateral trade deal with the Asian giant.

Nevertheless, many small-business owners in Latin America are unsure what the Asian market will hold for them. Some are even reticent about their ability to bridge the cultural divide in business circles, to the extent that some prefer to stick with established markets within the hemisphere.

"I think there is a clear advantage in Asian markets because of the sheer number of people, nothing more," says Maria Patricia Basaure, owner of MP Bascon, which makes hand-made chocolates. "If Mexico or some other small country approaches me and wants to buy my chocolates, I'll stick with the small guys," she says. "But everyone is talking about the Asians now, so let's try them out. If they don't work out: Bye, bye, I'll see you."

Francisco Troncoso, chairman of the Chilean government's working group at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), says Chilean small businesses need to learn new ways of doing business if they are going to profit, and that Asia provides the perfect learning environment. "We already know how to conduct business between Latin American [countries]. It's not simple, but you can," says Troncoso. 'Asians are the untapped opportunities, the new border, where we have to go--provided we understand how to conduct business there."

Troncoso says that while many people think of the benefits of the Asian market for certain products, in Asia business deals are not as much defined in terms of a product but in terms of a relationship. "So there are unlimited opportunities for Chilean small businesses in cosmetics, real estate, shoes, lemons, anything," he says.

Big umbrella. Despite individual country talks, a pan-Asian deal is the ultimate goal, says Hernan Somerville, a Chilean banker who coordinates a group of small businesses across APEC countries and recently became president of Chilean industrial trade group, the Confederacion de la Produccion y el Comercio. "The benefits of an umbrella of free trade partners in APEC is far superior to a continuation of bilateral agreements," says Somerville.

Alejandro Flamos, an economist with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, disagrees. He says a pan-Asian free trade agreement isn't necessary to increase trade. He points out that neither Argentina nor Brazil are part of APEC, or have any Asian free trade agreements. Nevertheless, most of the increase in their export growth this year has come from Chinese demand, principally for raw materials.

For some Latin American APEC members, like Mexico, a pan-Asian agreement would in fact create harmful competition. "Mexico has more problems regarding the boom in Asia," Ramos says. "Mexico has an export basket that is very similar to China's, so they are losing share in the U.S. market, and I don't know that a free trade negotiation under APEC will fix that."

JEN ROSS

SANTIAGO