Peru Cleared a China Protocol Built for 4% of What It Sells There

Supreme Decree No. 035-2026-RE, published in Lima on July 25, 2026, ratified the Protocol on the Optimization of the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and China. On August 5, 2026 the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said Peru had completed its internal procedures and that entry into force now waits on China, Agencia Andina reported the same day.

Mincetur's description of what was negotiated repays a close read. The protocol modernizes existing chapters and adds new ones, and the issues it covers are customs cooperation, the digital economy, quicker foreign trade operations, and a framework meant to draw more Chinese investment into Peru. Peru and China signed it in Lima on November 14, 2024, during the state visit by President Xi Jinping around the APEC summit Peru hosted. Mincetur's public account names no new tariff schedule.

That makes this a procedural instrument, and procedural instruments are judged on volumes rather than on rates. The volume in question is small. Mincetur puts Peruvian exports to China at US$10.748 billion in 2025, with non-traditional exports at 4% of that total and up 141% against 2024. China took 35% of Peru's total trade over the same year. Imports from China set a record at US$17.847 billion, on higher purchases of automotive products, steel, chemicals, and IT equipment.

The physical asset that makes any of this quicker belongs to the counterparty. COSCO Shipping Ports reported on July 25, 2026 that its Chancay terminal in Peru handled 201,800 TEUs in the first half of 2026, up 68.3%, inside group overseas volumes of 20.5 million TEUs, up 18.4%. Chancay is a real asset for a Peruvian exporter. It is also the quickest route for the larger flow, and in 2025 the larger flow was Chinese goods arriving, at US$17.847 billion against US$10.748 billion leaving. The stronger explanation is that cheaper handling helps whichever direction already has scale.

The strongest objection is that procedural chapters are exactly what a small exporter needs, because what keeps a Peruvian blueberry grower or a fishmeal processor out of a Chinese supermarket is more often the phytosanitary protocol, the certification, the clearance time, and the payment rail than the tariff. The 141% growth Mincetur reports for non-traditional exports to China in 2025 arrived before the protocol was in force, which is consistent with that reading. The concession it earns is real: 4% may be a floor rather than a ceiling. The test carries a date. If the non-traditional share of Peru's exports to China sits well above 4% by the end of 2028 with total exports holding, the procedural case wins and this reading is wrong. If the share is flat in 2028 while Chancay volumes keep compounding, the upgrade will have improved the import lane.

Mincetur has published no operative date, because China has not finished its own procedures. Until that notice appears, a Peruvian shipment to Shanghai clears under the agreement the protocol was written to replace.