The United States and Peru signed a free trade agreement Wednesday, setting the stage for a potentially tough fight in Congress unless the Bush administration offers Democrats stronger assurances that Lima will abide by international labour standards.
"This agreement with Peru is instrumental in our strategy to advance prosperity within our hemisphere," US Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to build bipartisan support for the US - Peru Trade Promotion Agreement in both houses of Congress in order to quickly approve this high-quality pact." However, the agreement faces an uncertain future in Peru, where leading presidential candidate Ollanta Humala has said the pact must be scrapped or renegotiated.