Weekly Report - 31 August 2017 (WR-17-34)

PERU | Seeking to boost foreign trade. On 29 August Peru’s foreign trade & tourism minister, Eduardo Ferreyros, announced plans for a series of 13 measures designed to stimulate Peru’s trade with its international partners. Ferreyros said Peru needs to become a more attractive trade partner, by making its products more competitive, and by reducing logistical costs. The initiative is part of the efforts by the government led by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to lift GDP growth up to 2.8% by the end of the year – a difficult task, given the 1.3% growth recorded in the first six months of the year. But Ferreyros said the government will seek to “improve customs operations, increase the competitivity of logistics services, create mechanisms of inter-institutional co-operation, and promote administrative simplification”.