Washington – Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo on Sunday began a four-day visit to the United States to promote the bilateral free trade accord between the two countries.
Toledo arrived in New York on Sunday morning, where he met with Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks, who is a member of the House Committee on International Relations and a supporter of the pact, which awaits ratification in Congress, the lawmaker’s spokesman, Candace Sandy, told EFE.
Toledo told Meeks that he had come to the congressman’s 6th District in Queens to thank him.
“I wanted to see your territory, given that you visited me in Peru,” Toledo said, recalling that Meeks had traveled to Peru last year at his invitation.
Toledo attended with Meeks a religious service at the Greater Allen Cathedral, a Queens church with more than 18,400 members – most of them African-Americans – and whose pastor is former Congressmen Floyd Flake.
“Toledo is a very enthusiastic orator. The people stood up in the church. It was something very emotional,” Sandy said.
The Peruvian Congress ratified the treaty on June 28 and all that remains before it can go into effect next year as planned is the U.S. Congress’s approval.
The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to begin discussing the pact, after the Senate Finance Committee began doing so on June 29.
Both committees must first approve the text of the pact and then send it to both full houses of Congress, where it will need a simple majority to be ratified.
Prior to Wednesday, Toledo is scheduled to meet with some of the committee members in Washington, where he is set to travel Sunday evening.
Accompanying Toledo on his visit are several Peruvian government ministers, including Oscar Maurtua (Foreign Relations), Alfredo Ferrero (Foreign Trade and Tourism) and David Lemor (Production), according to a Peruvian diplomatic official.
Also traveling with the president are his wife Eliane Karp de Toledo and a delegation of eight Peruvian businessmen.
