Trade on Peruvian-Brazilian Amazon border with great potential to increase economic integration

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Peru, Pedro Castillo and President Jair Bolsonaro, met for the first time this Thursday (3) in Porto Velho (RO).

President Jair Bolsonaro and Peru’s President Pedro Castillo agreed to establish a working group to explore the emergence of “new trade and investment flow on the Amazon border.”

In a joint statement, Brazil and Peru agreed on seeking “concrete forms of productive integration,” particularly in free trade zones and micro, small and medium enterprises.

The working group will discuss logistical solutions to “increase the competitiveness of both countries’ products” and measures to facilitate trade and speed up customs transit of goods and people at the border.

The joint statement also said Bolsonaro “reiterated the Brazilian government’s interest in the land link between Cruzeiro do Sul (AC) and Pucallpa (Ucayali), which he sees as having great potential to increase economic integration.”

Before the meeting with Castillo, the president said that it was in Brazil’s interest to build the road. “It is in our interest to have access to the Pacific. As I said, here it depends only on us and Peru, it does not depend on any other country, like further south, where this exit depends on three countries,” he said, speaking to reporters.

Despite the president’s remarks, the Federal Ministry of Public Affairs in Acre has filed a lawsuit in court against the Dnit (National Land Infrastructure Authority) tender that authorized the contracting of a company to carry out a primary project of BR-364 in the section between Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, and the city of Pucallpa, Peru.

Prosecutor Lucas Costa Almeida Dias said that the works would cause socio-environmental and financial damage in a statement on the matter.

According to the joint statement, defense, security, and health cooperation were also discussed. Regarding the reopening of borders, Peru and Brazil agreed to “promote the full reopening of river and land borders as soon as sanitary conditions allow.”