Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's trip to the United States, which begins today, will help reinforce bilateral trade ties and further highlight the complementarity between both countries, the Association of Peruvian Exporters (Adex) affirmed.
"We have high expectations regarding the scope of the U.S. new trade policies," said Adex Head Juan Varilias.
"Our first impression is that bilateral trade should not undergo major changes in the short term, developing as usual under the [Peru-U.S.] FTA currently in force," he estimated.
Likewise, the guild leader observed the countries' economic ties are not detrimental to U.S. employment generation.
"On the contrary […], the existing complementarity makes us see each other as strategic partners, and maybe as the trade relation model President Donald Trump seeks to promote as part of his policy," he suggested.
Export diversification
On the other hand, Varilias stressed Adex's diversification outlook on exports. In this respect, exporters are highly interested in reinforcing their presence in other markets, such as Asia.
"There's a valid growth strategy for us, but we can't ignore the fact that non-traditional exports to the U.S. exceed US$3 billion […]," he pointed out.
Trade opportunities
Adex's Economic Studies Department has identified trade opportunities for 135 national products in the U.S. market. Valued at US$1.309 billion, these are distributed mainly in the chemical, metal-mechanic, farming and agro-industrial, various and iron-steel subsectors.
Opportunities in the chemical domain include vegetable food coloring, denatured ethanol, tires, medicines and urea.
Metal-mechanic opportunities include machinery parts, gensets, electrical conductors and centrifugal pumps.
Opportunities in the agricultural industry include fruit juices, canned tomatoes, fresh and dried fruit, as well as turkey meat.
Exports
Peruvian exports to the U.S. reached US$6.242 billion in 2016, a 24.2% rise over 2015.
Said increase was driven by larger shipments of traditional products, which grew 56.7% (US$3.145 billion). Main contributors were gold and coffee exports, up 104.9% and 42.7%, respectively.
On the other hand, value-added exports (US$3.097 billion) increased 2.5%, buoyed by the farming, agro-industrial and chemical sub-sectors.
Imports
Main U.S. imports to Peru last year were diesel fuel, hard yellow corn, gasoline, tippers, raw petroleum oil and soybean oil residue.
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