PACIFIC RIM TRADE : Latin America : Hard-Scrambling Bobcats Eye the Tigers of Asia : Countries like Chile and Mexico are looking to the other side of the Pacific for trading partners. And their stares are being returned.

Ambitiously eyeing the high-stakes game of Pacific Rim trade, Chile said: “Deal me in.” And some winning cards have come this way. Other Latin American countries are taking note.

In 1992, Japan became the biggest buyer of Chilean exports, overtaking the United States. Chile’s exports to the Asia Pacific region have quadrupled since 1985 and now account for nearly one-third of its total exports.

Looking west to Asia for new trade opportunities is only natural for a country with a Pacific coastline three times as long as California’s.

“It is the most dynamic economic area in the world. Hopefully we will become a part of it,” said Cristina Bitar, an economist who coordinates Asian trade promotion for the Chilean Foreign Ministry. “We are already part of it because of our geographic position.”

In that sense, Chile is in the same seaworthy boat with 10 other Latin American countries with Pacific shores--Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They aren’t as formidable as the Asian tigers, but there are some hard-scrambling bobcats here on the forgotten stretch of the Pacific Rim. And with a combined population of more than 200 million, these countries are a trading area of considerable potential.

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Since the mid-1980s, economic reforms in most Latin American countries have toppled trade barriers, stabilized currencies and controlled inflation. A recent report issued by the Santiago-based U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said the reforms conform to patterns of development in the Asia Pacific region.

“Latin America has transformed itself into a much more enticing commercial partner for Asia,” the report said.

But Jose Carlos Mattos, a Brazilian economist with the U.N. commission, believes that the Latin countries will encounter tough competition. To build up business, more Latin exporters must travel to Asia to search out niches for their products. He suggested that some of the less developed Asian countries might be the best bets. “Maybe the markets that are just taking off will be better for certain Latin American products,” Mattos said.

Because Asian economies are growing fast, they could offer Latin America opportunities to diversify its export markets from traditional destinations in North America and Europe, where economic growth is now slower. And joint ventures with Asian companies could give Latin America’s private sector a source of needed development technology, Mattos said.

In addition, as Latin America modernizes and its middle class grows, the Brazilian economist said, it could become an important alternative to North America and Europe for Asian exporters and investors. Plans for Latin American economic integration “would create an immense regional market,” he added. “Those who are there early are going to be the ones who will benefit from this.”

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Many Asian business people, looking the other way across the Pacific, foresee similar benefits in Mexico as a partner with the United States and Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement. If NAFTA sparks rapid economic expansion in Mexico while creating an economic union from the Yukon to the Yucatan, Asian exporters and investors could profit handsomely from Mexican connections.

The Seoul government has already been encouraging South Korean companies to start investing in Mexico, and some Japanese companies are installing production centers there. At present, Japan exports goods worth more than $3 billion a year to Mexico but has less than $400 million invested there. Investment from Asia is certainly not enough to offset Mexico’s growing transpacific trade deficit.

“Some Asian countries took advantage of the opportunity Mexico’s commercial opening provided to modify the terms of trade to their favor,” said Juan Jose Ramirez, a researcher in the Asian and African Studies Center of El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City.

As a result, in 1991 Japan and South Korea became Mexico’s second- and third-largest sources of imports, surpassing Canada to move up behind the United States.

Mexican authorities tried to contain the flood of Asian imports in 1993. The most obvious example was their decision to slap countervailing duties of up to 1,105% on 16 types of Chinese goods ranging from shoes to bicycles. However, the tariffs, along with the dumping charges that led to them, have since been dropped.

Mexico has run a steady trade deficit with all Pacific Rim countries except Australia, said Ramirez. And the surplus with Australia eroded and disappeared in mid-1993.

However, Mattos argues that Asian investment provides Mexico “a unique opportunity to profit from the inflow of technology and managerial skills to graduate to a higher level of development.”

No Latin American leader is trying harder to foster Asian trade and investment than Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants. Fujimori, who took office in 1990, has traveled twice to Asia and may make a third trip this month. He has become widely known in Asia and “is identified with Peru,” said Congressman Victor Joy Way, the son of Chinese immigrants.

As a result, Joy Way observed, Peru’s trade with Asia has tripled over the past three years. The country recently opened consulates in Singapore; Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok, Thailand. Joy Way, who was Fujimori’s minister of industry before running for Congress last year, has made several official visits to Asia, which he called Peru’s “No. 1 priority in developing new relationships.”

China became a big participant in Peru’s privatization program last year when the Shougang Corp. bought Peru’s Hierroperu iron mine for $120 million, promising to invest $150 million over three years. Joy Way said 30 Chinese corporations are represented in Lima and view Peru as “an access base to the Andean market.”

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China imports 70% of Peru’s fish meal output, and Chinese companies have expressed interest in buying Pescaperu, the state fish meal company, when it goes on the auction block later this year.

Gonzalo Garland, chairman of Peru’s delegation to the Pacific Basin Economic Council, said that Peru’s membership since 1991 in the Pacific Rim business forum, and Fujimori’s interest in Asia, have seeded a fertile field. “Now we’re in the harvest season,” he said.

Chile has been harvesting Pacific Rim bounty for years. Its exports to the Asia Pacific region include large amounts of copper, frozen fish and fish meal, wood chips and pulp. Since 1980, Australian companies have invested $540 million here; Japanese firms, $400 million, and New Zealanders, $360 million.

Bitar, the Foreign Ministry official, said the biggest barrier to expanding business with Asian countries is that “Chile doesn’t know the Asian Pacific very well and the Asian Pacific doesn’t know Chile well.” To increase mutual exposure, she said, Chile is increasing efforts to bring Asian government and business leaders to Chile and to send Chileans to Asia for conferences, trade fairs and other contacts. This year, Chile is scheduled to become the second Latin American member of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The official export-promotion agency, Pro-Chile, will soon be hiring representatives in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It already has offices in Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Gradually, Chilean officials are chipping away at Asian trade barriers. With Japan, for example, Chile is negotiating for sanitary approval of its apple and grape exports. It recently won Japanese approval for the entry of Chilean kiwis.

China has approved fruit shipments from Chile beginning this year, and Bitar smiled as she relished the thought of 1.2 billion Chinese eating Chilean apples. “Only half an apple per Chinese will make us very happy,” she said.

Haroldo Venegas, a director of Chile’s Assn. of Exporters of Manufactured Products, said joint ventures between Asian and Latin American businesses could be a successful formula for increasing industrial trade between the two areas. A Chilean company could offer raw materials, low-cost labor and competent management, Venegas said, while an Asian partner could bring capital and technology. Together they could manufacture products in Chile for export to both Asia and Latin America, he said. “I would have a foot in Singapore, for example, and Singapore would have a foot here in Chile.”

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Times staff writer Juanita Darling in Mexico and Adriana von Hagen in Peru contributed to this article.