China and Peru have reached an agreement for a free trade zone, and the two sides agreed the first round of negotiations will be held in Lima January 21-24, 2008.
According to the Department of Information Technology of China's Ministry of Commerce, the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1971 and a cooperative partner relationship in 2005. President Hu Jintao and Peru's president Garcia first announced plans to start the negotiation of the Sino-Peru Free Trade Area during the informal leader meeting of APEC in Sydney on September 7, 2007.
The total volume of bilateral trade reached US$4.4 billion from January to September 2007, an increase of 48.4% over the previous year. China's exports to Peru were US$1.15 billion and imports were US$3.25 billion, up by 65.6% and 43.2% year on year, respectively.
