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  1. Negotiations

US-Peru

On 7 December 2005, Peru and the United States signed a bilateral treaty called the Trade Promotion Agreement.

The signing triggered a wave of public demonstrations in 2005. Prominent among the organizers were small farm organizations asserting that they would likely be hit the hardest by the resulting elimination of tariffs and other trade protections. The Peruvian government claimed that it would offer subsidies to reduce the agreement’s impact on small farmers, just as the United States does for its own agricultural sector. When the government failed to live up to this promise, the peasants marched in protest, demanding that the subsidies be released. In the midst of these protests, Peru ratified the FTA in June 2006.

February 2008 saw a new round of protests dubbed the “Paralización Nacional Agrícola” (National Agrarian Shutdown), in which thousands of small farmers participated. The protests, organized by the Comando Nacional Unitario de Lucha de los Campesinos Peruanos, were repressed by the authorities, leaving a total of four dead.

As part of the legislative package required by the FTA prior to its entry into force on 1 January 2009, the Peruvian executive branch – making use of the legislative powers granted by Congress – passed Legislative Decree 1015 on May 20 reducing the percentage of peasant and indigenous community members required to vote in order to sell or give concessions on their land in mountain and jungle areas.

In reaction, indigenous people from the Peruvian Amazon held several weeks of protests in August 2008 calling for the revocation of over 30 FTA-related decrees affecting their land rights. They were successful in getting the Peruvian Congress to revoke Decrees 1015 and 1073.

Also in August 2008, the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) amended Decision 486 regarding intellectual property in order to allow Peru to implement the FTA with the US. The amendment, initially rejected by Bolivia, brought CAN to the brink of dissolution.

The US-Peru FTA took effect on 1 February 2009.

last update: May 2012

Photo: Giuliano Koren / Global Giving

In first year, Peru trade pact creating US winners
7-Apr-2010 Feedstuffs.com
US corn exports to Peru in PTPA’s first year increased 167% in quantity and more than 100% in value, and the US market share of the Peruvian corn market jumped from 15% to 38%
A year after implementation of FTA, US and Peru left with broken promises, no new trade model
3-Feb-2010 Public Citizen
Environmental and labor conditions in Peru have deteriorated rapidly since the congressional passage of the FTA in late 2007 and implementation in early 2009.
Protest supports Peru’s Indigenous
21-Jun-2009 Workers World
Indigenous peoples, solidarity movement activists and environmentalists filled the sidewalks outside the Peruvian Consulate in New York June 10. It was New York’s turn to join the international solidarity movement that has sprung up since Peruvian President Alan Garcia ordered police to attack a demonstration of 5,000 Indigenous people in Peru’s Amazon region.
Indigenous struggle shakes up Peru
21-Jun-2009 Workers World
Indigenous uprisings in both Bolivia and Ecuador led to the removal of right-wing neoliberal governments and the installation of progressive presidents who then, together with the input of the people, created new constitutions. Will it happen in Peru?
Peru revokes Amazon mining laws
20-Jun-2009 LA Times
Peru’s Congress voted Thursday to revoke two laws enacted last year to open the Amazon to mining, oil and timber development, measures that enraged many indigenous groups and led to a bloody confrontation this month.
Peru Amazon protests a success
20-Jun-2009 Wanderlust
Indigenous people in Peru’s Amazon are celebrating after the government revoked two land laws out of the 11 new laws passed to implement the US-Peru FTA
Trade agreement kills Amazon indians
19-Jun-2009 FPIF
The recent clash between indigenous peoples and Peruvian national police sends a powerful message from the Amazon jungle straight to Washington: The enormous social, political, and environmental costs of the free-trade model are no longer acceptable.
Peru protests fuel regional tensions
17-Jun-2009 Al Jazeera
The recent clashes between the Peruvian government and indigenous peoples exacerbated tensions between Peru and neighbouring Bolivia whose indigenous president, Evo Morales, accused the Peruvian government of genocide against tribal protesters.
Peruvian indigenous land conflict explained
15-Jun-2009 AQ
Peru is back on the international human rights community’s blacklist
Peru to suspend land laws after violence
12-Jun-2009 FT
Peru’s Congress is moving to suspend the passage of laws at the heart of a lands right dispute with Amazonian indigenous tribes that sparked the worst violence the country has seen since the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.