Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and United States counterpart Donald Trump today will discuss how to move forward in the countries' bilateral relation as part of their meeting, Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Eduardo Ferreyros affirmed.
The government official stressed the relevance of said ties, as both nations have been strategic allies since the Peru-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) entered into force eight years ago.
As is known, the leaders are meeting today at 3:00 PM at the White House in Washington D.C.
"They will have a friendly gathering to exchange ideas on how to keep [bilateral ties] moving forward in the future. We have an FTA that benefits both countries, as evidenced by data," Ferreyros told Andina news agency.
In 2016, Peru's exports to the U.S. reached US$6.242 billion, a 24.2% rise over 2015, Association of Peruvian Exporters (Adex) revealed.
The said meeting also bears particular relevance given that Mr. Kuczynski "is the first Latin American President" to meet with the U.S. leader.
"Ever since we've had an FTA with the United States, we've been able to import machinery, equipment, technology and inputs we don't have but need to produce more," he noted.
Positive agreement
The Peru-U.S. FTA was signed in Washington D.C. on April 12, 2006 and entered into force on February, 1 2009.
Ferreyros described the said arrangement as "a win-win-agreement" for both economies due to their complementarity.
"We sell them what they don't produce and we buy [from them] what we don't produce and we need it to produce more," he underlined.
The Andean nation thus remains optimistic about the future of its bilateral relation with the U.S.
"We are optimistic about the future; we always have been. We have strategic partnerships with various countries and the U.S. economy is the first destination of Peruvian non-traditional exports," he pointed out.
The U.S. is also one of Peru's main tourist-feeder countries, only behind Chile.
President Kuczynski is currently on an official tour in the United States from February 23 to 27.
(END) MDV/JJN/DHT/MVB