Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-jl) -- According to Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, the preliminary amendments to the Unites States-Peru Free Trade Agreement will be ready sometime next week.

As we reported earlier, the United States Congress reached a bipartisan agreement to green light the U.S.-Peru FTA ratification process. As part of the agreement, U.S. Trade officials and Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade will negotiate amendments to the treaty, rather than renegotiating the entire agreement -something which Peru strongly opposed since its parliamentary body has already approved the deal.

According to Mercedes Araoz, Peru's Foreign Trade Minister, the United States Trade Representative's Office will have the preliminary amendments ready by next week.

"During our conversation yesterday, United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab indicated that in light of the agreements reached by the U.S. Congress, her agency will begin to prepare the initial amendments which will be sent to us (Peru) sometime next week," said Araoz to state run television station TV Peru.

Once the amendments arrive in Peru, her ministry will then send a negotiation team to the U.S. to collaborate with USTR officials on fine tuning the accords before they are sent to each country's congress.

Although the minister would not comment on the nature of the amendments, it is widely speculated that they will deal with issues concerning labor, intellectual property rights, and the environment.

"We do not know anything else. We only know what was reported in the media. We have an idea of what they (the amendments) may include, but again, we do not have details," said Araoz.

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	FTA: Peru's Foreign Trade Minister confirms U.S. bipartisan agreement (by LIP, 11 May, 2007)
	White House and Congress near deal on FTA with Peru (by LIP, 10 May, 2007)
	U.S. Deputy Secretary of State in Peru (by LIP, 10 May, 2007)
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