Monday, August 02, 2004
Free Trade? Dow Jones reports that "Peru won't sign a free trade pact with the U.S. if it doesn't improve the Andean nation's trade position," according to the Minister of Trade Alfredo Ferrero. NOTE: "Ferrero added that Peru won't sign a deal if it doesn't improve on the conditions already gained under Andean trade promotion legislation known as ATPDEA." ALSO: "The U.S. has offered to negotiate immediate duty-free access for Andean nations on 59.9% of 10,493 items that the tariff-free status could apply to."
Aid to Puno: Reuters and a World Food Program press release report that the WFP, the U.N. food aid agency, "has begun delivering $180,000 in supplies to 17,000 people in Peru's high southern Andes after the worst frost and snowstorms in 30 years killed livestock and wiped out crops. ... [C]ereals, oil and sugar were being distributed in Puno, near the border with Bolivia, where temperatures have plunged as low as -31 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 degrees Centigrade) and 80 percent of land is covered by snow." CITED: Dorte Ellehammer, the program's country director.
Ancient Brewery: The Associated Press, the BBC, and Reuters report that scientists from Chicago's Field Museum and the University of Florida "uncovered a brewery [in Cerro Baul] in the mountains of southern Peru where members of the Wari Empire made an alcoholic chicha more than 1,000 years ago. (AP photos are found here and in MSNBC story). NOTE: "It wasn't just a mom-and-pop operation, but something that could deliver the goods when dozens, if not hundreds, of Wari decided it was chicha time." CITED: The AP pegs their story on an interview with Patrick Ryan Williams (assistant curator at the museum) who estimated "the facility could produce as much as a few thousand liters of chicha a day." The BBC cites Susan deFrance; Reuters cites Michael Moseley. SEE ALSO: The Field Museum's site on Cerro Baul as well as their press release from last week.
Farming/Mining Down But Fishing Up: Reuters reports that "output in Peru's agriculture and key mining sector fell in June compared with a year earlier but fishing output soared," according to the INEI. NOTE: "Mining production, which generates half of Peru's exports, fell 2.48% in June compared with the same month a year ago after slipping 0.1% in May compared with the same month a year earlier. ... But fishing output jumped 27.56% in June, compared with a year earlier, INEI said, without giving any reasons for the surge. " A separate Reuters article offers more details, sector by sector.
Las Bambas - One Less Bidder: Reuters reports that Chile's Antofagasta "is pulling out of the auction for Peru's Las Bambas copper project," according to a company representative, who cited Peru's "new mining royalty as a reason to quit the bidding." NOTE: "Both Mexico's Penoles and South African miner Anglo American Plc have withdrawn from the auction citing the royalty that President Alejandro Toledo signed into law in June." ALSO: "Fourteen companies -- virtually all the world's big copper miners except for Chile's state-owned Codelco -- had originally pre-qualified for the auction."
Aid to Puno: Reuters and a World Food Program press release report that the WFP, the U.N. food aid agency, "has begun delivering $180,000 in supplies to 17,000 people in Peru's high southern Andes after the worst frost and snowstorms in 30 years killed livestock and wiped out crops. ... [C]ereals, oil and sugar were being distributed in Puno, near the border with Bolivia, where temperatures have plunged as low as -31 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 degrees Centigrade) and 80 percent of land is covered by snow." CITED: Dorte Ellehammer, the program's country director.
Ancient Brewery: The Associated Press, the BBC, and Reuters report that scientists from Chicago's Field Museum and the University of Florida "uncovered a brewery [in Cerro Baul] in the mountains of southern Peru where members of the Wari Empire made an alcoholic chicha more than 1,000 years ago. (AP photos are found here and in MSNBC story). NOTE: "It wasn't just a mom-and-pop operation, but something that could deliver the goods when dozens, if not hundreds, of Wari decided it was chicha time." CITED: The AP pegs their story on an interview with Patrick Ryan Williams (assistant curator at the museum) who estimated "the facility could produce as much as a few thousand liters of chicha a day." The BBC cites Susan deFrance; Reuters cites Michael Moseley. SEE ALSO: The Field Museum's site on Cerro Baul as well as their press release from last week.
Farming/Mining Down But Fishing Up: Reuters reports that "output in Peru's agriculture and key mining sector fell in June compared with a year earlier but fishing output soared," according to the INEI. NOTE: "Mining production, which generates half of Peru's exports, fell 2.48% in June compared with the same month a year ago after slipping 0.1% in May compared with the same month a year earlier. ... But fishing output jumped 27.56% in June, compared with a year earlier, INEI said, without giving any reasons for the surge. " A separate Reuters article offers more details, sector by sector.
Las Bambas - One Less Bidder: Reuters reports that Chile's Antofagasta "is pulling out of the auction for Peru's Las Bambas copper project," according to a company representative, who cited Peru's "new mining royalty as a reason to quit the bidding." NOTE: "Both Mexico's Penoles and South African miner Anglo American Plc have withdrawn from the auction citing the royalty that President Alejandro Toledo signed into law in June." ALSO: "Fourteen companies -- virtually all the world's big copper miners except for Chile's state-owned Codelco -- had originally pre-qualified for the auction."
Latin Democracy is Deeper: The Financial Times publishes an op-ed by the Brookings Institution Carol Graham and is, in effect, a response to those who have conflated the Ilave lynching and the UNDP report 'The State of Democracy' into a "crisis of democracy in Latin America." Graham states that while "i is true that Latin America has problems that merit serious attention from the international community ... the region's citizens are not about to toss out democracy and return to authoritarian times. They are seeking better performance than most current governments can provide." SEE ALSO: 'UNDP Report in Lima' in April 21 and 22's Peruvia.
PAlva in Miami: The Miami Herald profiles Trujillano/Ohioan Pepe Alva who is performing in Miami on Thursday. " He is the founder of the 1990s musical group Alma Raymi which played "a then-groundbreaking fusion of rock and Peruvian folkloric music that gathered a loyal following."
MSchumacher = Peru: Planet F-1 states that racing superstar Michael Schumacher "earns more money than the GDP of Peru."
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