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Teresa Elena Frontado

Igor Patrick

Peru’s new government has pledged to bring its free-trade agreement with Hong Kong into force this year as part of an effort to position the country as a commercial bridge between South America and the Asia-Pacific, even as its first comprehensive policy programme made no direct mention of mainland China or the Chinese-operated Chancay megaport.
Prime Minister Luis Galarreta told lawmakers on Thursday that commercial openness would remain a state policy under Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori’s administration.
“During 2026, we will promote the entry into force of the free-trade agreement with Hong Kong, advance new agreements and promote regional exports,” Galarreta said in an address outlining the government’s priorities before the Chamber of Deputies.
“The long-term goal is for Peru to consolidate its position as a platform for trade, investment and services between South America and the Asia-Pacific, maintaining our participation in Apec and other economic blocs.”


The commitment was the only explicit reference to Hong Kong in Galarreta’s 18-page address, which focused heavily on domestic security, economic growth, infrastructure, mining investment and government reform.
Peruvian imports from Hong Kong totalled US$28.6 million last year and were concentrated in steel, chemical and metalworking products, according to trade ministry figures. Exports to mainland China over the same period reached about US$32 billion.
Peru ratified the Hong Kong agreement in mid-July through a decree weeks before Fujimori took office.
The measure also covered the parallel letter on professional services signed alongside the treaty in 2024. Trade Minister Berthin Gomez Vela said Lima would notify Hong Kong so the two sides could set a start date, which has yet to be announced.
China absent from Peru administration’s first policy plan
Mainland China – Peru’s largest trading partner and a major investor in its mining, electricity and infrastructure industries – was not mentioned.
The omission was particularly notable because Peru recently completed its internal procedures to ratify an upgraded free-trade agreement with China, signed in November 2024, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Lima.
The updated agreement modernises the original pact, in force since 2010, and expands its provisions in areas including services, investment, digital trade, customs procedures and supply-chain cooperation.
Peru completed its domestic ratification of the protocol in July. Its entry into force requires China to complete its corresponding procedures and the two governments to exchange formal notifications.
Galarreta also did not refer to the Port of Chancay, the US$1.3 billion deepwater terminal built and operated by China’s state-owned Cosco Shipping.
Fujimori’s government plan described the terminal as central to expanding exports and committed to consolidating it as the South Pacific’s logistics platform.
It also proposed a Chancay-Callao logistics cluster with special economic zones and industrial estates.
Inaugurated by Xi and Peru’s then-president Dina Boluarte in November 2024, the port has become a centrepiece of Beijing’s economic presence in Latin America and is intended to shorten shipping times between South America and Asia.
It has also become a source of tension between Beijing and Washington. US officials have warned that Chinese control of strategic infrastructure could weaken Peru’s sovereignty, claims both China and successive Peruvian governments have rejected.


Cosco took the dispute to Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal in July after losing an appeal that had briefly freed it from state oversight.
A Lima court ruled in January that transport regulator Ositran could not supervise, regulate or sanction the terminal, which the company describes as private infrastructure.
The Second Constitutional Chamber overturned that decision on June 17 and found Cosco had not shown a credible and imminent threat to its rights. Ositran keeps its powers over the port until the judges rule.
The two appearances of the name Chancay in Galarreta’s speech referred instead to proposed work on a local bridge and the Chancay-Chancayllo road bypass. Neither project was explicitly connected to the port.
Fujimori vows to prioritise Peru’s role in Apec, attract new investment
Fujimori told her inaugural audience the government would prioritise Peru’s role in Apec and pursue new investment openings.
She described the country’s geography as a bridge to Latin American markets and did not name China.
Yin Hejun, China’s science and technology minister, travelled to Lima as Xi’s special envoy and met her before the swearing-in ceremony. A US delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau saw her the same day.
Foreign Minister Carlos Espa met Chinese ambassador Song Yang in Lima on August 13, a week before the policy address.
The ministry said they discussed Fujimori’s interest in attending the Apec summit in Shenzhen in November and made no mention of the port dispute. Espa spent 15 years as communications director at the US embassy in Lima before entering politics.
During the campaign he attacked what he called “an imperial Chinese fishing fleet massing at the edge of Peru’s 200-mile limit”. But he also said on taking office that he wanted to “preserve the dynamism of ties with China”, calling it Peru’s main trading partner.
It was not immediately clear whether the absence of China and the megaport from the speech represented a deliberate effort by the Fujimori government to avoid sensitive geopolitical questions or reflected the address’s predominantly domestic focus.


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Prime Minister Luis Galarreta says country aims to become trade and investment bridge between South America and Asia-Pacific


Prime Minister Luis Galarreta says country aims to become trade and investment bridge between South America and Asia-Pacific.


New Peru government vows to apply Hong Kong trade deal, but is silent on mainland China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Prime Minister Luis Galarreta says country aims to become trade and investment bridge between South America and Asia-Pacific

Prime Minister Luis Galarreta says country aims to become trade and investment bridge between South America and Asia-Pacific