Building upon the strong bilateral cooperation established between the U.S. and Peru through agreements and arrangements such as the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement and TransPacific Partnership, standardization workshops were held last week in the Peruvian cities of Lima and Arequipa. The events were the first to be held in Peru under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s recently announced Standards Alliance initiative. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and USAID have agreed to implement the Standards Alliance in up to ten countries, including Peru, under a new, multi-year public-private partnership [see related news item].
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The workshops - held in Lima on August 6 and in Arequipa on August 8 - brought together industry representatives and government officials to discuss U.S. and Peruvian experiences and perspectives related to standardization and regulatory practices. About 130 individuals took part in the Lima event, representing a diverse mix of stakeholders in government, industry, testing and certification bodies, and academia. Both workshops were carried out in collaboration with USAID's Facilitando Comercio project, and organized by Peru's Ministry of Foreign Commerce and Tourism (MINCETUR), National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and ANSI.
During the workshops, participants received overviews of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) TBT Chapter, as well as additional information on U.S. and Peruvian standardization and regulatory practices, and discussed case studies providing information about the economic benefits of standardization. Speakers from the U.S. included representatives of USTR, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) International Trade Administration (ITA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and ANSI. In addition, speakers from MINCETUR, INDECOPI, the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Congresista de la República (Congress of the Republic of Peru) delivered remarks addressing Peruvian perspectives on standardization and related issues.
The discussions and collaborative relationships begun in Lima and Arequipa will provide an effective foundation for future Standards Alliance activities in Peru, which are expected to enhance the ongoing U.S.-Peruvian partnership on standardization and trade issues and to bolster the overall U.S.-Peru economic relationship.
For more information about the Standards Alliance, please contact ANSI at [email protected].