http://www.thebusinessonline.com/DJStor ... 06DN012567

Bush TELLS Congress He Plans To Enter Trade Deal With Peru

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. President George W. Bush told lawmakers late Friday that he intends to enter into a trade agreement with Peru.

"The United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement will generate export opportunities for U.S. farmers, ranchers and companies, help create jobs in the United States, and help American consumers save money while offering them more choices," Bush wrote in a letter to the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate.

"The agreement will also benefit the people of Peru by providing economic opportunity and by strengthening democracy."

The letter gives Congress at least 90 days notice before Bush signs the agreement.

The White House is moving forward on the free trade deal with Peru, though negotiations on a regional pact with Peru, Colombia and Ecuador have stalled. The administration hopes eventually to complete a hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas. That ambitious plan met vocal resistence at November's Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, however.

The Peru deal follows last year's completion of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, which narrowly made it through Congress.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 06, 2006 20:36 ET (01:36 GMT)

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