Chile and China started their fifth round of talks on service trade Monday in the Chilean city of Vina del Mar to promote the development of bilateral trade.

The free trade agreement was the first of its kind China signed outside Asia, immediately removing all tariffs on 92 percent of Chile's exports.

Andres Rebolledo, a Chilean official in charge of foreign trade, said: "When the agreement came into force in October 2006, we managed to strike an agreement on goods. Today we are negotiating to extend the agreement to services, an area of great importance for Chile's economic development."

Chile will host the second edition of the Free Trade Agreement Administration Thursday to assess its implementation.

Chile hopes the agreement can serve as a bridge between South America and the vast Asian market.

Thanks to the agreement, China has outstripped the United States and become the biggest importer for Chile.

After the agreement, China-Chile trade volume reached a total of $11.8 billion, an increase of 66.3 percent.