By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) – China’s state-owned company, at the center of a dispute over the operation of a megaport it is building on Peru’s Pacific coast, insisted on Tuesday on terms agreed with the government , as some local officials sought to renege on the agreement. .
Hong Kong-based Cosco Shipping Ports will defend its legal rights to provide services as the exclusive operator of the Chancay deep-water port terminal under “the terms that were agreed at the outset of this investment”, the company said in a press release.
Cosco added that the legal controversy hurt the project and warned against imposing new rules on ports that some regulators said they might consider.
The Peruvian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cosco began developing the port of Chancay in 2019 as a hub for South America and the Pacific and a key growth engine for Peru. In 2021, Peru’s National Port Authority (APN) granted Cosco the exclusive right to manage Chancay, but said in March that it never had the legal authority to grant it. He blamed an “administrative error” and asked that a judge overturn the conditions.
Cosco responded at the time that it was evaluating the impact of the decision. Since then, Peruvian lawmakers have pushed to allow the exclusive provision of port services by private companies and Economy Minister José Arista has said the original port agreement must be respected.
Cosco, which provides shipping services, is expected to invest some $1.3 billion in the first stage of the $3.5 billion project, with more than 70% of construction completed.
Last month, Cosco sent a letter to Peru’s Ministry of Economy requesting a six-month negotiation to resolve the dispute amicably without recourse to international arbitration, a letter which Arista said had been received.
At the time, he said he hoped to reach an agreement and avoid arbitration.
In its statement on Tuesday, Cosco noted that the ministry had not yet responded to its letter, proposing an “institutional path” for negotiations. But he also said he had taken a first step toward resorting to an arbitration process provided for in a Sino-Peruvian trade agreement.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Richard Chang)
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