On March 28, the Congress of the Republic approved the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and the United Kingdom, which will allow Peruvian exporters to continue taking advantage of the tariff preferences to this European market.
In this
regard, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Claudia Cornejo, pointed out
that the approval of this agreement takes on special relevance in the current
context, since its application represents an opportunity to position our
exports, reduce risks of uncertainties and ensure the flow of trade and
investment in the country.
With the
approval of this agreement, trade between Peru and the United Kingdom will
continue to grow under the same conditions that are currently being developed.
This benefit allows 95% of Peruvian products to continue to enter this country
free of tariffs.
This treaty stipulates various provisions that make the processes in the export logistics chain more efficient. It also provides protection and recognition of intellectual property rights and encourages the participation of companies from the signatory country in Peruvian bidding processes, etc
The
favorable behavior of Peruvian agro-exports is mainly explained by the increase
in sales of products such as fresh grapes, quinoa, avocados, mangoes and cocoa,
among others.
On the
other hand, we must highlight that during this period non-traditional
agricultural exports grew 24.7%, while traditional exports fell 2.2%,
reaffirming not only the great potential of our non-traditional agricultural
products but also, taking as a reference these positive figures sustained by
several years, we could affirm that Peru has been consolidating itself as an
exporter in this area.
Another
good news is the diversification of the destination of our agricultural
exports. Between January and May 2014 there are 135 destination countries. Of
these, the United States is the main market with 24.9% of the total. The second
largest destination was the Netherlands (13.9%), then Spain (5.6%), China (5%),
Ecuador (4.9%) and Germany (3.8%). These six markets concentrate approximately
58.1% of the total exported.
The
effort to carry out a policy aimed at conquering more markets with better
prices is evident, using trade treaties or agreements as a tool to sustain this
current rate of growth and expand the agricultural supply. However, despite the
encouraging numbers, if this positive trend is to be consolidated, there is
still a lot to do.