The Peruvian government's action plan includes three axes.
Peru's Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Desilú León, stated today that the Dina Boluarte administration's action plan, in response to the United States' imposition of 10% tariffs on Peruvian products, includes three pillars: risk assessment, opening new markets, and support for exporting companies.
"We have based our approach on three pillars: one is risk assessment, meaning we have already received the news that we are included among the countries that will be subject to tariffs, but at the lowest rate imposed by the United States, as part of its trade policy, which includes 185 countries," he said on RPP .
"The sectors that would be primarily affected by these tariffs and where they could have potential impacts are agriculture, forestry, and minerals. So, based on that, we had to determine what measures we could adopt and what we should prepare for," he added.
Desilú León indicated that the other two pillars of the action plan relate to opening new markets and supporting exporting companies so they can enter the market with their products.
"Continuing to open markets is important because we didn't know how much a potential tariff imposition would be and whether it would have a significant impact. We had to consider which markets to target for our exporters. For example, we are currently working on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India, and we are also exploring new possibilities regarding Japan," he mentioned.
"The final point in our action plan is supporting Peruvian export companies in reaching these new markets, because the health protocols and needs are not the same. We must support them in this process," he added.
The minister indicated that it is too early to provide a figure or percentage of the impact on Peru's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), given that the assessment is still ongoing.
"It's very premature, but what we could mention is that this measure could affect blueberries, fresh grapes, unroasted coffee, fresh asparagus, and fresh avocado. Other concerns include processed foods such as fish oil or canned artichokes," he said.
"We have requested meetings with U.S. authorities to provide valid support for Peru's ability to continue with a 0% tariff on our export products, which will not affect the trade balance," he said.
Desilú León stated that Mincetur has been working in coordination with the Agrarian Development and Irrigation, Economy and Finance, Production, and Foreign Affairs sectors to evaluate the measures announced by the United States government, with the goal of anticipating the estimated impacts and proposing strategies for different scenarios.
