Pubdate: Sun, 24 Mar 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Drew Benson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

BUSH TALKS TRADE IN VISIT TO PERU

LIMA, Peru -- President George W. Bush visited this troubled Andean nation 
yesterday in an effort to show support for its recent return to democratic 
rule, and to strengthen ties with governments battling leftist rebels and 
drug traffickers.

Bush's visit, the first by a sitting U.S. president, came three days after 
a bomb shattered a street outside the U.S. Embassy, renewing fears of the 
kind of terrorism that ravaged this country in recent decades.

Bush arrived from stops in Mexico and El Salvador on a trip designed to 
demonstrate renewed U.S. interest in Latin America. In his 2000 electoral 
campaign, Bush had said Latin America should no longer be "an afterthought 
of American foreign policy" - but his first visit to this region had to be 
postponed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Bush's stop in Peru is to focus primarily on trade issues. Along with 
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, Bush is to meet with the leaders of 
Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia, which are seeking a renewal of the Andean 
trade deal that gives these countries a break on U.S. tariffs.

The Andean region is deeply impoverished. Poor roads and low crop prices 
encourage farmers to grow coca for sale to drug traffickers. The Andean 
trade deal is an effort to make other, legal products easier to sell in the 
vast U.S. market. But the U.S. law that permits the tariff breaks - the 
Andean Trade Preference Act - expired in December.

The administration granted a one-time, 90-day extension, but renewal of the 
deal is held up by U.S. senators who are concerned that the new pact will 
ease the export of textiles from this region.

Peru is pressing for the inclusion of textiles, noting that items currently 
protected from U.S. tariffs under the agreement form a mere 0.6% of imports 
into the United States.

"Peru isn't asking for gifts," Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan told 
reporters earlier in the week. "What Peru asks for is access to markets."

In Bush's visit, the administration also is offering to retire about $10 
million of Peru's debt with the United States in exchange for this country 
better protecting its tropical rainforests.

Wednesday's bombing, which killed nine people, was the worst terrorist 
attack in Peru in five years. Authorities, who suspect leftist rebels in 
the attack, intensified security for Bush's visit. Authorities shut down 
the airport for hours around the time of Bush's arrival and ordered its air 
force to shoot if necessary to enforce a ban on aircraft flying over the 
capital.

Toledo took office last year following the fall of the autocratic former 
President Alberto Fujimori. Since the bombing, Toledo has announced he 
would revamp Peru's weakened intelligence services and double the Interior 
Ministry's anti-terrorism budget.

Police say they believe the bombers drugged a taxi driver, dumped him on 
the road, parked his car on the street outside the embassy and set the bomb.
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