Industry groups praise House passage of U.S.-Peru trade pact

Industry groups praise House passage of U.S.-Peru trade pact Numerous industry groups praised the House for its passage Thursday of a free trade pact with Peru.
   “From Lima, Ohio, to Lima, Peru, this agreement means new opportunities for workers, farmers and companies,” said Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a statement.
   The House approved the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) by a vote of 285 to 132.
   “Congressional approval of the PTPA will show our trading partners in Peru and the rest of the region that the United States values our commercial relations with Latin America,” said Mary Irace, vice president for trade and export finance of the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council.
   The industry has lobbied hard for passage of the PTPA. The chamber, for example, built a coalition of more than 700 businesses and associations over the past two years to sponsor events in select cities across the country with leaders from Peru, and hosted fly-ins and meetings with policy leaders on Capitol Hill.
   It’s estimated that U.S. trade with Peru has doubled during the past three years, reaching $8.8 billion in 2006. Of that amount, $2.9 billion was attributed to U.S. exports to Peru. This trade imbalance is blamed in part because products from Peru already enter the United States duty free under existing trade agreements such as the Andean Trade Preference Act and Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act. In Peru, U.S. exports face an average tariff of 10 percent. The PTPA will eliminate most of these tariff barriers.
   Industry groups are hopeful that Senate will also pass the PTPA before the Thanksgiving break in late November. They are similarly pressing hard for Congress to pass other free trade agreements struck by the United States with Panama, South Korea and Colombia.
   “Passage of this (PTPA) agreement sends a signal to our trading partners around the world that we won’t abandon our strategic partners and that the United States is committed to eliminating barriers to trade,” said Stephanie Lester, vice president for international trade at the Arlington, Va.-based Retail Industry Leaders Association.