SUNAT unifies tariff preferences and incorporates the trade protocol with China

The National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (SUNAT) has ordered the publication of the draft superintendency resolution approving the specific procedure DESPA-PE.01.39 (version 1), titled “Application of tariff preferences under trade agreements signed by Peru.” The measure was officialized through Superintendency Resolution No. 000226-2026/SUNAT, dated November 11, 2026, published in the official newspaper El Peruano on Friday, November 13, 2026, opening a period of fifteen calendar days to receive comments.

The regulatory basis for the provision is Article 47 of the General Customs Law, Legislative Decree No. 1053, which establishes that goods subject to treaties or conventions signed by Peru are governed by the provisions therein. To this is added the First Final Complementary Provision of the Regulations of the General Customs Law, approved by Supreme Decree No. 010-2009-EF, which empowers SUNAT to approve the procedures and instructions necessary to apply that law and its regulations.

According to the recitals, through the resolutions detailed in the single annex, nineteen specific procedures were approved that set the guidelines for applying tariff preferences in the import for consumption of goods under current trade agreements. The entity maintains that it is necessary to “approve a single procedure” that includes the instructions for requesting preferential tariff treatment, in order to “simplify and facilitate within the customs sphere the application of the regulatory and operational aspects” of those treaties.

A single instrument for nineteen agreements

The single annex organizes the trade agreements and the specific procedure that currently regulates them, including:

• Andean Community (Cartagena Agreement): DESPA-PE.01.11, version 3.
• Montevideo Treaty 1980: DESPA-PE.01.12, version 3.
• Trade Promotion Agreement with the United States: DESPA-PE.01.19.
• FTA with China: DESPA-PE.01.22, version 1.
• FTA with Korea: DESPA-PE.01.26, version 2.
• Trade Agreement with the European Union: DESPA-PE.01.31, version 2.
• Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom: DESPA-PE.01.37.

The list is completed with the procedures referring to Canada, Singapore, EFTA, Thailand, Mexico, Japan, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Honduras, Australia, the Pacific Alliance, and Guatemala.

Updated agreements and recently incorporated treaties

SUNAT justifies the unification on the grounds that several agreements were modified regarding tariff relief and rules of origin and require updating, such as the regulations of the Andean Community, the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and Chile, and the Protocol between Peru and the Kingdom of Thailand to accelerate the liberalization of trade in goods.

At the same time, treaties that previously had no regulation in the procedure have been ratified and implemented, including the Agreement on the Generalized System of Trade Preferences among Developing Countries, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the FTA between the Pacific Alliance and Singapore, the FTA with Guatemala and its protocol, and the Free Trade Agreement with Hong Kong, China.

The Optimization Protocol with China

The project incorporates the provisions of the Optimization Protocol of the Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Peru and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the implementation of which was ordered by Supreme Decree No. 012-2026-MINCETUR starting November 1, 2026. These rules were not part of the text previously published with Superintendency Resolution No. 000198-2026/SUNAT, dated October 12, 2026, and therefore must be added to the new procedure along with the contributions already received.

Fifteen days to submit comments

Article 1 of the resolution sets a deadline of fifteen (15) calendar days, counted from the day following the publication in El Peruano, to receive comments, contributions, or opinions from operators and the general public. Article 2 enables two channels:

• Submission at SUNAT’s document reception units.
• Sending to the email addresses fnunezm@sunat.gob.pe and jvenero@sunat.gob.pe, indicating the procedure being observed.

The National Superintendency of Customs Development and Innovation is in charge of the reception, systematization, and analysis of the comments. The project is published on SUNAT’s digital site (www.sunat.gob.pe) on the same day as its appearance in the official newspaper, and the instrument bears the signature of the National Superintendent, César Alfonso Luna Victoria León.

For importers and foreign trade operators, the regulation concentrates rules dispersed across nineteen resolutions into a single procedure and adds the agreements in effect since 2026, including the protocol with China, Peru’s main trading partner. The consultation is the last opportunity to influence the text before SUNAT issues the resolution that definitively approves it.

Source: El Peruano, Friday, November 13, 2026, Legal Norms, pp. 44-46 (official reference: Superintendency Resolution No. 000226-2026/SUNAT).