U.S.-Peru FTA News

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has asked the Peruvian government to verify that a group of timber shipments to the U.S. were logged legally, launching a process under the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement that could allow the U.S. to bar imports if it finds evidence of wrongdoing. USTR announced the action, which it said applies to five timber shipments, in a statement on Thursday. The agency is invoking a provision in an annex on the forest sector in...

Editor's note: This story was updated after initial publication to correct the date of meetings held by the U.S. and Peru last November. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has extended a ban on illegal timber imports from a Peruvian company, the agency announced on Thursday, drawing praise from the top Democrat on the House Ways & Means trade panel. The U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement established the Interagency Committee on Trade in Timber Products from Peru. The committee...

Special Presidential Adviser for the Americas Chris Dodd will be in Lima this week to encourage Peru’s full participation in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, the State Department announced on Monday. Peru is one of 11 Western Hemisphere countries that signed onto the U.S.-led economic development initiative. The U.S. in January launched APEP , though the Biden administration has not released much information about the partnership since then. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols last...

Senior officials from the newly named 11 Americans Partnership for Economic Prosperity countries on Friday used an opening ministerial event to lay out their goals for the initiative, calling on the U.S. and partners to boost trade in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Secretary of State Antony Blinken convened the virtual ministerial after the U.S. released long-awaited details on APEP , including the initial partner nations: Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador,...

The U.S. will move “very quickly” to forge the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity along with 11 other countries that represent 90 percent of Western Hemisphere GDP, a senior administration official said on Thursday, offering the most substantive outline of the emerging deal ahead of a public unveiling. Initial APEP partner countries will include Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and the U.S., a group of countries that includes two-thirds of the...

DES MOINES, IOWA – The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, announced at the Summit of the Americas in June, will build on the “strong core” of existing trade agreements and arrangements in the region, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said here last week, adding that it would be “multifaceted” and include multiple pillars. The Biden administration has released no further details about the initiative since the announcement ; a senior administration official at the time told reporters to expect “formal...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Friday took action against illegal logging in Peru, barring a Peruvian company from exporting timber into the U.S. -- a move that may help the administration ease Democrats’ concerns over the enforceability of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Under the terms of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, USTR Robert Lighthizer instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block imports from one Peruvian exporter after finding evidence of illegal logging in the company’s supply chain...

The U.S. and Peru have resolved concerns tied to Peru’s environmental obligations under their bilateral trade agreement, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on Tuesday after the Peruvian government annulled the December 2018 policy that triggered the first-ever consultations. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Jan. 4 requested consultations under Article 18 of the FTA, the chapter outlining environment consultations and panel procedures, after the Peruvian government moved the Agency for the Supervision of Forest Resources and Wildlife...