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The WTO sets common rules, trade agreements open doors with conditions, and barriers, tariff or not, decide whether your product gets in. Learn to tell them apart before you choose a market.
Goal: Tell apart a tariff, a non-tariff barrier and a trade agreement, and calculate how much it costs to enter a market without an agreement.
Trade between countries has rules. The broadest ones are set by the World Trade Organization (WTO), created on 01/01/1995 and based in Geneva, which replaced the GATT of 1947. Peru is an original member. The WTO brings together more than 160 countries, administers the agreements they negotiated, monitors compliance and offers a system to settle disputes between governments.
Three principles work as your compass. Most-favored nation: if a country gives a tariff advantage to one partner, it must give it to all WTO members, except for exceptions such as trade agreements. National treatment: once the product has entered, it is treated the same as the domestic one. Binding: each country sets a ceiling on its tariffs and cannot exceed it without negotiating.
Trade agreements are pacts between countries to give each other preferential access. An FTA (free trade agreement) removes or reduces tariffs between the parties and usually includes rules of origin, services, investment, government procurement and intellectual property. There are also regional blocs, such as the Andean Community and the Pacific Alliance, and broad agreements such as the CPTPP. The benefit is not automatic: you must show that your product meets the rule of origin, the condition that defines when a good is considered made in the partner country. This topic is covered in depth in the Customs taxes, trade agreements and origin course.
A tariff is a tax that a country charges on goods entering it. The most common is ad valorem: a percentage of the value of the goods. The Peruvian tariff has levels of 0%, 6% and 11%, with a nominal average of 2.2%, according to the MEF. Other countries charge more and, when there is an agreement, lower or remove that percentage for the partner's products.
Non-tariff barriers are all the other measures that make entry harder: quotas, licenses, technical standards, labeling, health requirements and paperwork. The WTO allows them if they are based on science and do not discriminate, but for the exporter they can weigh more than the tariff. There are also trade remedies: anti-dumping duties (against unfair prices), countervailing duties (against subsidies) and safeguards (against sudden surges in imports). Health and technical requirements are covered in depth in the Quality, technical requirements and agro-export course.
| Type of measure | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ad valorem tariff | A percentage of the value of the goods. | A country charges 10% on the CIF value. |
| Specific tariff | A fixed amount per unit of weight or quantity. | US$ 0.50 per kilo. |
| Tariff-rate quota | One quantity enters at a low tariff; the excess pays more. | The first 1,000 tonnes pay 0%; the rest, 12%. |
| License or quota | Prior permit or a cap on quantity. | Import permit for certain products. |
| Sanitary or phytosanitary measure | Protects the health of people, animals and plants. | Phytosanitary certificate or residue limits. |
| Technical barrier to trade | Standards for quality, safety, labeling or certification. | Mandatory label in the country's language. |
| Trade remedy | Additional duty in response to dumping, subsidies or sudden surges in imports. | Anti-dumping duty on one country's product. |
Result: Without an FTA, Sabores del Ande adds US$ 0.82 per box (13.7% of FOB) in the first lot; with an FTA, only US$ 0.18 (3%). The tariff is not the only barrier: health and labeling requirements also cost money and time.
2025
In the executive summary it presented to Congress to support its 2026 budget, MINCETUR records 23 trade agreements as a management indicator, with the result for the first half of 2025, and 58 new markets added through trade agreements in force. For an exporter this means there is a path to preferential access to dozens of markets. But the benefit is not automatic: each agreement has its own rules of origin, quotas and tariff phase-out periods.
Before exporting, review the text of the agreement that applies to your product and your market: not all products or all time frames are the same.
18/12/2025
On 18/12/2025, the Council of the European Union approved a revision of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products. It postpones its application to 30/12/2026, with six more months for micro and small operators, and asks the Commission for a simplification report by 30/04/2026. The regulation covers coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber and cattle, and their derivatives. It is a non-tariff barrier that reaches Peruvian coffee and cocoa exporters: anyone selling in the EU must show that the product does not come from deforested land.
Confirm the date and the current requirements of a destination-market rule before each campaign, because deadlines move.
2025
The MEF tariff policy page states that the ad valorem rates applied to third countries (most-favored nation) cover the entire tariff universe and are 0%, 6% and 11%. The nominal average tariff stays at 2.2% between 2024 and 2025, the weighted average was 1.7% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025, and 71% of subheadings have a 0% tariff. It matters because Peru is a low-tariff market: when you import, the tariff weighs less than other costs; when you export, you face other countries' tariffs.
Look at the destination country's tariff, not Peru's: it is the one your buyer pays and it sets your price against competitors.
Source: MEF – Política arancelaria
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