Jul 13, 2005

Thousands of Peruvians March in Protest of Proposed Free Trade Pact With U.S.
The Associated Press


LIMA, Peru (AP) - About 4,000 Peruvians representing the nation's agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors marched Wednesday through the capital's financial district to protest a proposed free trade pact with the United States.
Peru, Ecuador and Colombia have been in negotiations with Washington for more than a year to create a pact aimed at giving the three South American nations tariff-free access to the large U.S. market.

The protesters, some of whom rode on horseback, carried signs that said: "Competition, yes. Monopoly, no," and "Don't give it away. Negotiate."

Growers of sugar cane, rice, corn, potatoes and cotton, among other products, fear U.S. agricultural subsidies will make it impossible for them to compete.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, Paul Hunt, a U.N. special health rights investigator, said Wednesday that a U.S.-Peru free trade agreement could make essential drugs unaffordable to more than half of Peru's population that lives in poverty.

The proposed free trade agreement includes greater patent protection than is required under World Trade Organization rules, which could restrict future government action to protect public health, he said.

But President Alejandro Toledo's government is eager to seal the deal.

Peru's Finance Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said Monday that Peru might sign a free trade deal with the United States, even if its other Andean nation negotiating partners fail to reach an agreement.

Toledo said Tuesday that his government would sign a pact, "no matter what," prompting criticism from opponents that the government is not interested in hard bargaining to achieve the best deal possible for Peruvians.

"The Peruvian negotiators appear to be gringos," Luis Zuniga, president of the National Peruvian Agro Convention, said Wednesday as he marched. "Until now they haven't gotten us anything for the nation. Just the opposite. They've given away 50 percent of the national market to the United States."

AP-ES-07-13-05 1711EDT

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