Peru aims to finalize negotiations for a free trade agreement with India in 2025 and is advancing talks to establish a similar trade pact with Indonesia in the future, Peruvian Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Ursula Leon said.
A new pact with India would allow the South American country to have free trade with the two most populous nations in the world, as Peru has had free trade with China since 2009.
Leon stated that negotiations with India lasted eight rounds and had to be interrupted previously during elections in the country, in early 2024.
“We hope to advance in the negotiations now that they have resumed and that next year, in 2025, we can have a free trade agreement with India,” said Leon in an interview in his office this Friday (8).
Trade between Peru and India has increased in recent years with sales of gold from the Andean country. Peruvian exports to India totaled around US$3.5 billion between January and September this year, an increase of 77% compared to the same period of the previous year, according to data from the Peruvian government.
Peru, the world’s third-largest copper producer, is also negotiating a free trade agreement with Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country with a population of more than 280 million people.
Leon said Peru hopes to advance negotiations with Indonesia during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which will be held in Lima next week.
“I believe that we can present, in front of APEC, a substantial advance in this free trade agreement with Indonesia,” said Leon.
Peru will also sign an updated free trade agreement with China, Peru’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Peru wants to sign an agreement with Brazil to strengthen economic ties, which has been awaiting an 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 an anti-corruption clause within the text of the agreement,” said Leon.
