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Bloomberg
China’s President Xi Jinping made a state visit on Monday to Peru, one of its partners in its drive to boost world trade in the face of protectionist stirrings.
A day after taking part in the APEC Asia-Pacific trade summit, Xi made a formal visit to the host nation, a major mineral and food exporter.
He was expected to discuss a deal for exporting Peruvian prawns and blueberries to China, the head of the Peru-China chamber of commerce Jose Tam was quoted as saying by Peruvian newspaper El Comercio.
During the APEC summit Xi cast his country as a leader of free trade cooperation.
That was seen as a response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to restrict free trade deals in order to protect US jobs.
Xi was welcomed at the presidential palace on Monday by Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The latter was elected this year on promises to attract foreign trade and investment.
Peru and its neighbors Brazil and Bolivia are also reportedly hoping to secure Chinese investment to build a railway linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
China’s Trade Minister Gao Hucheng said his country was willing to expand its 2010 bilateral free trade deal with Peru, according to Peruvian news agency Andina.
He said China recently overtook the United States as Peru’s top trading partner. Bilateral trade was worth $7.1 billion dollars in the first half of this year.