Ricardo Lagos Weber - Political Career

Political Career

In 1995, he became the Chilean representative to the APEC forum, conducting trade negotiations on economic cooperation. That same year he was part of a diplomatic team negotiating a free trade agreement between Canada and Chile. Lagoes Weber continued to negotiate trade agreements over the next few years. Since the end of the 1990s, Lagos Weber served as the head of the department of Trade Policy of the World Trade Organization, under the Chilean Foreign Ministry's General Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON). In October, 1999, Lagos Weber left his WTO job to serve a major role in the presidential campaign of his father Ricardo Lagos. In 2000, he traveled with President Lagos to Berlin to act as a panelist at the "Third Way" conference, speaking for Chile and his father's administration. He subsequently became Director of Multilateral Economic Affairs in 2002, heading the General Directorate of International Economic Relations.

Lagos Weber served as Chilean high representative for APEC during the summits of 2003 and 2004, and was the "main organizer" of the conference when Chile hosted APEC. To this end, he was also a Senior Official for Chile, and the president of APEC's Senior Officials Meeting II prior to the conference. Lagos Weber was a candidate for the congressional elections in December 2005, but withdrew his candidacy in August based on polls that suggested that, even with a 45% showing, he would not secure a seat under Chile's electoral rules.