Sen. Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy supported the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement. The bill, signed into law last month, will significantly enhance North Dakota's international business opportunities.

Our business will directly benefit from this trade agreement. Prior to its passage, Peru imposed a 7 percent import duty on our products. With the trade agreement, our products will enter duty-free.

The trade agreement essentially does two things: First, it provides for even more trade between the United States and Peru. Second, it makes North Dakota and other U.S. exporters more competitive with other world exporters. Several North Dakota products are already exported to Peru, including Bobcat skid steers, lentils, dry peas, wheat and mining equipment. These export sales, currently valued at $2 million annually, will increase under this agreement.

Peru had a major advantage in exporting to the United States prior to this agreement. About 98 percent of Peru's exports entered the United States duty-free, while less than 2 percent of U.S. agricultural goods had duty-free access to the Peruvian market.

Under the new agreement, nearly 90 percent of currently traded U.S. agricultural products will be allowed immediately into Peru duty-free. At Solarbee, we are also now in a much stronger position to export our own products. Accordingly, I have requested our regional director for the Latin American region to travel to Peru to start identifying partner and customer opportunities.

Prior to the agreement, Peru granted trade preferences to many South American countries. The U.S.-Peru TPA eliminates that as well. An increasingly open market has made Peru one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America (8 percent growth last year). The U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement is important to North Dakota businesses.