Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Info provided and translated by the
American Chamber of Commerce of Peru (AmCham Peru)

There are five commodity descriptions by which Peruvian coffee is exported to the United States. The main one is HTS 090111, which concentrates nearly 99% of total exports.

At the end of 2007, nearly US$117 million were exported to the U.S., positioning this country as the second most important destination of that type of coffee (Germany is currently the main destination).

Nowadays this type of coffee is exported to 40 different destinations and only 3 local companies concentrate the exports to this attractive market. It is also important to know that the port of New York and San Francisco concentrate 36% and 18% of total exports to the United States respectively.

Even though most types of Peruvian coffee enter the U.S. tariff free, the commodity 210112 in the harmonized tariff system (HTS), which corresponds to preparations made of coffee, has to pay a tariff rate of 10% in order to gain access to the American market.

Total imports of that commodity in the United States reached nearly US$10 billion. Canada, Korea, Vietnam, Mexico and Malasia were the main providers. Of those 5, only Canada and Mexico enter tariff free due to NAFTA.

Therefore, with the implementation and entry into force of the PTPA, Peruvian coffee might be able to take advantage of this opportunity, especially since Peru does not currently export this type of coffee.