Tariffs imposed last December by Peru's government on clothing imports from China expired on 11 July. Local textile businesses claim cheap imports from China have led to mass job losses, and they pressed the 
government to keep the tariffs permanent. However, the government has decided instead to impose "general safeguards", under WTO regulations, on clothing imports from a variety of Asian nations rather than risk a backlash and the possibility of damaging retaliatory action by China.

Other Peruvian exporters had said that the temporary textile duties had cost more in terms of lost business from China - Peru's third-largest trade partner - than they saved in the domestic textile industry. Peru is a major exporter of metals and fishmeal to China, and it has been hoping to expand its shipments of agricultural products as well as improve its prospects for tourism. But Peru's Foreign Minister Alfredo Ferrero warned in early July that 'keeping the safeguards on Chinese textiles could generate reprisals and affect our exports'. The president of Peru's Foreign Trade Society, Jose Chlimper, also warned, 'What we would be losing [if the safeguards remained] are opportunities.'

The textile industry claimed that Beijing would be unable to impose significant retaliatory tariffs as fishmeal and metals were raw materials China would be unable to do without. But there had been signs even with these products that Beijing was taking steps in protest at the extra tariffs. In January Peru sold 53% of its fishmeal exports to China; but in June, six months after the tariffs were imposed, this had dropped to only 22%. Since May, fishmeal prices have dropped US$70 a kilo.

Meanwhile, Production Minister Alfonso Velasquez said that the new tariffs, which would 'certainly' be imposed on 'some [nations] from South-East Asia', would also be temporary. The new measures have been imposed in part to placate angry textile workers who claim that cheap imports cost over 40,000 jobs in domestic industry between June 2001 and 2003. Several hundred workers marched through Lima on 30 June demanding the tariffs on Chinese imports be made permanent.

• Strikes hit Chinese-owned mine
  Peru's only iron mine, which is owned by a Chinese company, has suffered in the past two months with two serious and costly strikes over pay. The first, a 13-day walkout in June, is estimated to have cost the company - Shougang Hierro Peru S A - US$3.5m in lost business; while the second walkout, which began in late June and is still underway, has cost the company an estimated US$4.5m. Shougang announced on 23 July that it would have to cease production entirely because it could not meet its export contracts.
  
  Peru's Energy and Mines Minister Jaime Quijandria warned on the 18th day of the second strike (15 July) that it could have serious knock-on effects on Peru's construction sector, particularly as the nation's largest steel producer, Sider Peru, relies exclusively on Shougang for iron. The long-running walkout coincided with a general strike nationwide called by the nation's largest union in protest at the government's unpopular economic policies.
  
  Shougang's second strike involves 180 subcontractors who are demanding parity with contracted workers, who won a pay raise of 2.9 soles (US$0.84) per day after their strike in June. The government has been urged to intervene in the standoff, and Shougang's contracted workers have also urged their counterparts to call off the roadblock which has crippled the mine's operations for over a month.