To the editor:

The Peru free trade agreement has failed to mention the devastating impact it will have on the livelihoods of poor farmers, public health and the regulation of investment to protect the public interest in Peru.

In a country where more than half the population lives in poverty, this agreement could raise medicine prices by almost 10 percent within the first year of implementation, 100 percent in 10 years and 162 percent in 18 years, according to a health ministry study in Peru.

Agriculture is the main source of jobs in rural areas where the majority of the poor live. But this agreement will expose Peruvian farmers of cotton and basic grains like wheat, corn and rice to potentially ruinous competition with subsidized U.S. exports. Twenty-five thousand U.S. cotton producers receive $3.5 billion a year in subsidies from the government. Twenty-eight thousand Peruvian cotton producers, on the other hand, receive nothing. This agreement would remove and prohibit protections that seek to remedy this unfair advantage.

I am in opposition to this unfair trade deal and I am sure that many other Americans would oppose it as well, if they knew about these negative impacts to some of the poorest people in the world.

Joe Laframboise,

Lawrence