Agreement ratification gets the Go-ahead
Lima, July 15, 2021.- Various economic sectors have received with great expectation yesterday’s (July 14) decision of the plenary session of the Congress, which approved with 97 votes in favor the ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
And that’s the least because it is a major trading bloc comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Precisely, with the entry into force of the agreement, our country expands its export offer to Brunei, Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam. Meanwhile, with the other countries, the Agreement will allow for greater benefits, for example, in terms of tariffs.
In a scenario of economic recovery, it is quite considerable to have these new agreements with other countries to boost exports, said Rafael Zacnich, manager of Economic Studies at Cómex-Peru.
In addition, according to ADEX, the CPTPP would enter into force after ratification by the Executive Branch.
Specifically, one of the sectors that would benefit from the Agreement would be agro-exports, since products such as grapes and cranberries would be positioned in the new markets.
Peru would be entering Malaysia duty-free with fresh grapes, avocados and other products, specified Gabriel Amaro, executive director of the Association of Agricultural Producers Guilds of Peru (AGAP, for its acronym in Spanish). “It is a tremendous opportunity for the entire production industry,” he added.
Taking the numbers as a reference, Zacnich recalled that 60% of shipments to this trading bloc come from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
“And almost 60% of what is exported are non-traditional shipments, manufactured products. We are talking about a bloc to which we send our products with higher added value,” he commented. Mincetur’s estimates indicated that other Peruvian products that would benefit would be cotton t-shirts and polo shirts, preparations for animal feed, wood products, dairy products, chemical inputs, ethanol and sweet cookies.
Multisectoral work
However, taking advantage of this commercial framework requires a joint work between the different sectors. The former minister of Mincetur, Rogers Valencia, said that work must be done on both the international and domestic fronts. Regarding the first one, he pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the certification processes of Peruvian products so that they can enter these new markets.
Meanwhile, at the national level, he emphasized that it would be opportune to work to reduce the infrastructure gap. We have to make a great effort to improve the accessibility of our products within the country to our ports, he highlighted.
Source: El Comercio