Peru Ratifies FTA With Honduras

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

26 July 2016

Peru ratified its free trade agreement (FTA) with Honduras on July 24, 2016, according to a statement from Peru's Ministry of Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR).

The FTA was signed on May 29, 2015, and Honduras ratified it in September 2015.

The head of MINCETUR, Blanca Magali Silva Velarde-Álvarez, said that the FTA will improve Peru's access to the Honduran market. She noted that Honduras is an attractive export destination for Peruvian small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The FTA covers, among other things, market access, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and trade protection.

According to the MINCETUR statement, around 80 percent of Peruvian products will receive duty-free access to Honduras upon entry into force of the FTA or within five years of entry into force.

The Peruvian exports that will benefit from the FTA include asparagus, mandarins, artichokes, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, quinoa, amaranth, paprika, and coffee.

MINCETUR said that Peru's exports to Honduras grew 4.7 percent in 2015 to USD40.8m.

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