Pacific Alliance

Alianza del Pacifico Pacific Alliance
Emblem
Dark green: Full members.
Official languages	Spanish
Type	Trade bloc
Membership	Member states  Chile  Colombia  Mexico  Peru Observer states  Argentina  Australia  Austria  Belgium  Canada  China  Costa Rica (in the process of becoming a full member, stalled)  Denmark  Dominica  Dominican Republic  Ecuador  El Salvador  Finland  France  Georgia  Germany  Greece  Guatemala  Haiti  Honduras  Hungary  India  Indonesia  Israel  Italy  Japan  Morocco  Netherlands  New Zealand  Panama (in the process of becoming a full member)  Paraguay  Poland  Portugal  Singapore  South Korea  Spain  Sweden   Switzerland  Thailand  Trinidad and Tobago  Turkey  United Kingdom  United States  Uruguay
Leaders
• President pro tempore	Michelle Bachelet
Establishment	6 June 2012
Area
• Total	5,144,603 km2 (1,986,342 sq mi)
Population
• 2012 estimate	206,831,371a
GDP (PPP)	2014 estimate
• Total	$3,572 Billions
• Per capita	$16,506
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Per capita	$ 2168,260 Billions
Website alianzapacifico.net/en
Combined census estimates of member states.

The Pacific Alliance (Spanish: Alianza del Pacífico) is a Latin American trade bloc, with some features of further integration. It currently has four member states — Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which all border the Pacific Ocean.

On 28 April 2011, former president of Peru Alan García organized a meeting with the presidents of Chile, Colombia and Mexico. This group of political leaders issued the Declaración de Lima, a statement of intent to establish the Pacific Alliance. The initial goal of the alliance was to further free trade with "a clear orientation toward Asia", and economic integration.

The four founding nations of the Pacific Alliance represent nearly 36% of Latin American GDP. If counted as a single country this group of nations would be the sixth largest economy in the world with a PPP GDP of more than US$3 trillion. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the countries of the Pacific Alliance together exported about $445 billion in 2010, almost 60% more than Mercosur, the other predominant Latin American trade bloc. Individually and collectively, the core countries of the Pacific Alliance have been deemed "The Pacific Pumas" by political scientists, for their model of economic and political development.

At the VII Pacific Alliance Summit in Cali, Colombia, on May 22, 2013, Costa Rica signed a trade agreement with Colombia, and later in the summit received approval for full membership from all the founding members. Costa Rica is finishing up the process so it can be readily incorporated as the Alliance's fifth member. At the same summit seven observers were admitted: the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Honduras, Paraguay, and Portugal.

The Pacific Alliance currently has 48 observer states, including economic heavyweights such as Japan, China, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as three of the five Southern Common Market (Mercosur) countries and a member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). Analysts describe the Pacific Alliance as a tool to practise a kind of joint “nation-branding” to promote trade and investment and to enhance the international status and visibility of the member states.