China, Peru sign trade agreement
EFE | 11 May 2009
China, Peru Sign Trade Agreement
BEIJING - China and Peru signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday aimed at promoting investment by the Asian giant in the South American country, as well as bilateral trade.
This is the second trade deal signed by Beijing with a Latin American country, following the agreement inked with Chile.
Peruvian Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Mercedes Araoz and Chinese Deputy Trade Minister Yi Xiaozhun signed the trade agreement in the Great Hall of the People at a ceremony attended by the vice presidents of both countries.
The presence of Peruvian Vice President Luis Giampietri and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the ceremony showed the importance that Peru’s head of state, Alan Garcia, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have given to negotiating the “most complete and far-reaching” trade agreement that China has signed, Peruvian Ambassador to China Jesus Wu said.
Giampietri and Araoz met with Xi, who is considered the likely successor to President Hu, before the signing ceremony.
“Half a year after Presidents Hu and Garcia met in Lima (during the Asia-Pacific summit), you have come on a working visit that will bolster the strategic partnership between our two countries,” Xi told Giampietri.
The Peruvian vice president noted in his remarks that the two countries shared “a long friendship started 148 years ago, when the first Chinese arrived in Peru.”
Garcia wants to increase Chinese investment in Peru from the $7.3 billion registered last year to $15 billion by 2015, while Chinese giants, such as Chinalco, Shougang and Zijin, study expanding their mining investments in the Andean nation.
The trade pact will open the way for investment in mining and power generation, wind power, oil, gas and the basic infrastructure needed for mining projects, as well as in the fishing industry, which counts China as its top customer for fishmeal.
Cooperation agreements focusing on customs and anti-poverty efforts complement the trade deal.
China is the No. 2 destination for Peru’s exports, trailing only the United States.
Peru’s exports to China reached $3.74 billion in 2008, or 12 percent of the total, while imports came in at $3.57 billion, the Peruvian government said.
