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Senate Finance Committee Approves U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement The Senate Finance Committee last week voted in favor of a free trade agreement between the United States and Peru, taking the first step in the ratification process. The pact, which has broad bipartisan support, now moves to the Senate floor for fast-track consideration. It is expected to be ratified by Congress before the end of the month.IDFA supports the agreement because it will open new opportunities and allow the thriving market with Peru, which totaled approximately $12 million in dairy exports last year, to flourish. Current Peruvian duties on U.S. dairy products fluctuate widely with global market prices, often ranging anywhere from 30% to 68%. Most of these tariffs will disappear, however, once the trade agreement is implemented. "Upon implementation, U.S. dairy exporters will gain immediate duty-free, quota-free access for whey and lactose exports as well as sizeable amounts of tariff-free access for cheese, ice cream and processed dairy products," said Helen Medina, IDFA manager of international and regulatory affairs. The agreement with Peru is the least contentious of the four trade pacts currently before Congress; the pending pacts with Panama, Colombia and South Korea face significant congressional opposition. Most notably, the recent election of Pedro Miguel Gonzalez to lead the Panamanian National Assembly is seen as a significant obstacle to U.S. approval of a pact with Panama. Gonzalez has been indicted in the United States on charges of first-degree murder in the 1992 killing of a U.S. Army sergeant, and there is an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Regarding Colombia, key Democrats have said they will not approve that trade agreement until the country makes more progress in stemming the violence against union leaders. As for South Korea, Congress will not consider the proposed agreement unless South Korea agrees to accept all U.S. beef products, which have been banned since bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease" was discovered in the United States in 2003.
Posted October 8, 2007
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