A new free trade agreement between the United States and Peru, if approved this month, will lead to increased exports of Georgia poultry products, said James Sumner, president of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, during the 20^th Annual Latin American Poultry Congress, Sept. 25-28 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The Stone Mountain-based council is optimistic about the FTA’s chances for approval and is already working with the Peruvian poultry industry to create a specific agreement to regulate poultry trade once the FTA goes into effect, Mr. Sumner told GlobalAtlanta at the event.

The FTA, which was signed in April 2006 and approved by the Peruvian Congress last year, was approved in preliminary votes by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. A final vote by both committees is expected this month. The measure then awaits an up or down vote by the full U.S. Congress under the fast-track provision. If approved, the agreement could be in place before the end of the year, according to reports.

With the FTA on the horizon, Mr. Sumner and members of the export council visited Peru in July to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Peru Poultry Association to set quotas for leg quarters and processed chicken and turkey products. The same plant the group visited was devastated a month later by the massive earthquake that struck the province of Ica, Peru, some 165 miles sorth of Lima, the country’s capital. The U.S. export council responded by donating $25,000 to the Peruvian association to help families affected by the disaster 

The council is now working to set up an export trading company that will manage the quota allocations of poultry products designated by the proposed FTA, Mr. Sumner said. The entity is to be incorporated in the U.S., and its board of directors, comprised of U.S. and Peruvian poultry industry representatives, will administer the FTA quotas by auctioning off the available export slots to producers in both countries, he added.

The export council developed the auction idea following the approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005, and the program has since generated $1 million for the export council and $1 million for Central American poultry associations, Mr. Sumner said.

He added that, after Peru, he thinks the U.S.-Panama FTA is likely the next free trade agreement to be approved, and the U.S. export council is prepared to negotiate a poultry agreement with that country’s poultry industry as well. 

The Georgia-based council is also working on facilitating poultry trade with Chile. Although the U.S. has had an FTA with Chile for several years, there is still no poultry trade between the countries because of technical trade issues that must be resolved by both nations’ poultry export associations, Mr. Sumner said.

Free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea are still pending, but those, too, if implemented, would spur the export council to act on behalf of the U.S. poultry industry to arrange agreements that would benefit producers in each country, he added.