A general view of a container terminal in Gujarat, India. Reuters/ File
Peru aims to finalise negotiations for a free trade agreement with India in 2025 and is advancing talks to have a similar trade pact with Indonesia in the future, said Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Ursula Leon.
A new pact with India would enable the South American country to have free trade with the world’s top two most populous nations, as Peru has had free trade with China since 2009.
Leon said negotiations with India had stretched to eight rounds and had to be paused previously during the country’s elections earlier in 2024.
“We hope to advance the negotiations now that we have resumed and that next year in 2025, we can have a free trade agreement with India,” Leon said at an interview at her office on Friday.
Trade between Peru and India has increased in recent years on gold sales from the Andean country. Peruvian exports to India were worth about $3.5 billion between January and September of this year, an increase of 77% from the same period a year earlier, according to Peruvian government data.
Peru, the world’s third largest copper producer, is also negotiating a free trade agreement with Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world with a population of more than 280 million people.
Leon said Peru hopes to push forward negotiations with Indonesia during next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) to be held in Lima.
“I think we can show, facing APEC, a substantial advance in this free trade agreement with Indonesia,” Leon said.
Peru will also sign an updated free trade agreement with China, Peru’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Peru wants to forge with Brazil an agreement to strengthen economic ties, which has been pending anti-corruption protocol since 2016, and eventually have a free trade pact, Leon said.
“After everything that has happened in recent years with some Brazilian companies, it is very important to have the anti-corruption clause within the text of the agreement,” Leon said.
