Peru Farmers Protest Trade Plan
Thousands of farmers blocked highways and clashed with police Tuesday to protest a U.S. trade deal that they say will ruin them financially.
Police used tear gas to disperse rice growers who blocked roads and burned tires near Peru’s border with Ecuador, and roadblocks by farmers in southern Peru backed up hundreds of buses and trucks along the main regional highways.
Hundreds of people marched in Lima, the capital, while farmers blocked streets with rocks in the city of Arequipa.
“This accord has been negotiated behind the backs of the Peruvian people,” said Antolin Huascar, head of Peru’s national farming association, CNA.
Peru’s Congress and departing President Alejandro Toledo last week ratified the free-trade deal with Washington, paving the way for its approval by U.S. lawmakers. Toledo plans to fly to Washington on Friday.
The government says the deal will create 80,000 jobs and increase economic growth by 1 percentage point every year, boosting exports to the U.S., Peru’s top trading partner, to $9 billion in 2010 from about $6 billion today.
Farmers counter that the accord will cause 1.5 million job losses and say they cannot compete with subsidized U.S. goods.
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