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CICR
Marco Meneses, President of the ICRC, stated the union´s position with respect to the round of FTA negotiations with the South American country, which are currently taking place in Panama, in a letter delivered to the Minister for Foreign Trade, Anabel Gonzalez, exhibited concern over the choice of partners enabling positive and mutually beneficial trading.
"We request for negotiations to respect sensitivities of companies and the enhancement of opportunities, so to have a positive balance in the relationships and for them to be of mutual benefit, but currently a lack of an export platform does not allow us to export even within existing agreements," said Meneses.
He further stressed that the country's trade strategy of insertion into the international economy by signing free trade agreements has had and will have a positive impact if it is done intelligently, gradually and selectively.
"Peru is an irrelevant trading export partner. In 2009 represented 0.40% of total exports and in 2010 these figures were reduced significantly after a modest growth since 2005, which had resulted in a positive balance in 2009 ", presented Meneses.
According to Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER), domestic companies sold to Peru a total of $ 34.9 million in 2009, placing the country in the 26th place of export rankings considering export values, but in October 2010 this figure reached only $ 9.93 million, placing Peru at number 46 in the same ranking.
"At the Chamber we support the efforts of domestic firms exporting to Peru, but we believe that priorities in the trade agenda should be focused on consolidation of partners with whom we have agreements in place, and not try to erode the only protection mechanism with the productive sectors, which are tariffs in exchange for little-used preferences," said the Chamber´s chairman.
More on this topic
April 2011
Monday May 2 in Lima will see the beginning of the fourth and final round of negotiations on the free trade agreement (FTA) with Peru
In this round, Costa Rica will define its position on outstanding issues in the field of access of goods to the market and specific rules of origin.
February 2011
The third round of negotiations will take place form February 28 until March 4 in San José, Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade commented they expect major advances in this round.
Costa Rica´s offer went from 52% of items readily available for Peruvian exports, to 65% for this week´s appointment, added the deputy minister.
September 2010
With the aim of making progress toward a free trade agreement (FTA), the region's Ministers for Trade are meeting with their Peruvian counterpart in the Panamanian capital.
Present at the meeting will be Honduras' Héctor Escalante, Costa Rica's Fernando Ocampo and El Salvador's Carlos Moreno, representing their respective countries, which have all expressed an interest in participating in the FTA negotiations with Peru.
April 2011
Costa Rica's food industry chamber (Cacia in Spanish) feels that the Peruvian market does not offer favorable conditions for these products.
Cacia executive director, Mario Montero, commented that they will also be asking the Trade Ministry to exclude certain kinds of juice and alcoholic beverage.
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