The Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Peru was signed in Lima on 29 May 2008, at Government Palace, by Helena Guergis, Secretary of State, on behalf of Canadian minister David Emerson, and by Mercedes Aráoz Fernández, Peru's minister of foreign trade, the English, Spanish and French texts being equally authentic. It is not the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments of 14 November 2006, signed in Hanoi, which it complements, and it is not the parallel labour-cooperation and environment agreements signed the same day. Canada's treaty series dates it Lima; it entered into force on 1 August 2009.

The preamble seeks to strengthen friendship, to build on rights and obligations under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO, to create an expanded and secure market for goods and services, to reduce distortions, to ensure a predictable framework for investment, to protect the environment and workers' rights, to promote sustainable development and to affirm democratic values and human rights. It recognizes differences in development and the TRIPS flexibilities concerning public health. Article 101: the parties establish a free trade area, consistent with Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of GATS.

Article 102: the parties affirm their existing rights and obligations with respect to each other under the WTO Agreement and other agreements to which they are party. Chapters II–VII, at framework level, cover national treatment and market access for goods, rules of origin, trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers and emergency action. A tariff schedule, origin calculator or tariff-evasion guide is not set out here.

Chapters VIII–XV, still at framework level: investment, cross-border trade in services, telecommunications, financial services, temporary entry for business persons, competition, government procurement and electronic commerce. A visa, ISDS or tendering protocol is not transcribed. Chapters XVI–XVII refer to labour and environment cooperation. Article 2303: the agreement shall not be subject to unilateral reservations. Article 2304: each party notifies completion of its domestic procedures; it enters into force on 1 January 2009 or on the date of the second of these notifications, whichever is later — hence the actual date of 1 August. Article 2305: termination on six months' written notice. Article 2306: accession on agreed terms.

Cover: Government Palace in Lima, place of the ceremony; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Canada–Peru Free Trade Agreement; Free Trade Agreement Between Canada and the Republic of Peru (SICE / OAS).