PERU: GOVERNMENT COMPLETES ANDEAN FREE TRADE TALKS WITH U.S., BREAKING WITH COLOMBIA AND ECUADOR.
The government of Peru's President Alejandro Toledo announced Dec. 7 that it had finished negotiations on the Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) with the US, even though the two other potential signers, neighbors Ecuador and Colombia, had given no sign that they approved of the deal as it stood. This broke the Andean bloc of countries and put the Peruvian Congress in charge of the next phase of approving the now-bilateral treaty. Peruvian farmers and pharmaceutical price-control advocates registered their discontent with the deal, while exporter business groups urged its quick passage into law, although the public has yet to see the text that negotiators agreed upon.
On Dec. 7 the US and Peru announced they had reached the free trade agreement, following an all-night, 17-hour marathon negotiating session that capped 18 months of talks. The pact is intended to remove trade barriers between the two countries and expand economic ties. President Toledo praised the deal in a press conference in Lima.
Farm union says it has been "betrayed"
Peru's largest farm union swiftly condemned the agreement and said it was planning a national strike against it. Farmers worry that US farm goods will flood Peruvian markets and put its producers out of business.
Many farmers and health-care advocates in Peru see the agreement as detrimental. Luis Zuniga, president of the Convencion Nacional del Agro (Conveagro), said, "This is terrible news for Peru's farmers. Our government and negotiators have handed over our agricultural sector to the United States, which will cause around 1.7 million farm-job losses in Peru."
"Our wheat, cotton, rice, barley, and corn markets have been given away, and we don't know what else has been agreed to in relation to other products," said Zuniga after the deal was announced. He called the agreement "a betrayal against agricultural producers." Zuniga said that he and allied groups would be considering forceful measures to oppose the deal.
Peruvian officials have previously expressed fear that a free-trade pact would push up the price of medicines. The UN says many of Peru's poor die from treatable illnesses because they cannot obtain, or pay for, medicines. "We believe it will increase the price of medicines by more than US$150 million during the first five years of the treaty, putting drugs out of reach of many poor Peruvians," said Victor Loza, president of Federacion Medica del Peru, which represents 13,000 doctors in the Andean...
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