The EU and Chile have announced the start of negotiations to modernise their existing Association Agreement, which governs EU-Chile political, commercial, economic, financial, scientific, technological, social, cultural and cooperation ties. The modernisation will include the trade chapters of the agreement, including standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, small and medium-sized enterprises, services and investment, agriculture, customs, consumer protection, intellectual property rights, transport, fisheries, and energy. The trade deal will include common values and topics of concern, such as enhancing the role of women in trade. The European Parliament gave its recommendations in September about the topics it would like to see reflected in a final deal, which included not only gender, but also sustainable development-related provisions.