Focus Country: PERU

Home to 31.75 million people, the Republic of Peru is located on the Western side of South America, and shares a border with five of its neighbours (Ecuador, Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia, and Chile). Peru is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, in industries such as copper, gold, zinc, petroleum, and coffee.

Geographically, Peru has a diversity of climates due to its many mountain ranges, tropical jungles, and coastal regions. The best time to travel there is winter, the dry season, lasting from May to September. Conversely, from December to March is summer –– the wet season –– which can have extreme temperature variations. The wet season is the main holiday period for Peruvians.

Peru is five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-5), and business hours are typically 9am to 6pm, with a two-hour lunch period.

In a business setting, greeting others with a handshake is expected and considered appropriate for both men and women. And, although over 40 other languages are recognized, Spanish is the main language for government, business, and education. While business travellers can get by using only English, it is generally only spoken in densely populated tourist areas and high-end hotels.

Peru has a democratic system of government, with the president acting as the head of state. The current president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, has not held the position long. Having narrowly won the job in Peru’s April 2016 election, he was sworn into office on July 28th, 2016.

Peru is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and currently has over 20 free trade agreements and economic partnership agreements in place or under negotiation, including existing agreements with other TPP signatories such as Canada, USA, Chile, Singapore, and Mexico. For more information about Peru’s trade agreements, visit http://www.acuerdoscomerciales.gob.pe/