PROPOSED ACTION ON LIMA AIRPORT FEES

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001774

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FROM AMBASSADOR STRUBLE TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY JOHN HILLEN
DEPT FOR WHA/AND, EB/TRA/AN, PM/ISO
PENTAGON FOR USAF/XONP DALE CHANEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2016
TAGS: EAIR ECON PGOV PE
SUBJECT: PROPOSED ACTION ON LIMA AIRPORT FEES

REF: A) STATE 57224Q B) 05 LIMA 5267QC) 03 STATE 64266

Classified By: Ambassador James Curtis Struble for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (U) This is an urgent action request from Ambassador
Struble, please see para 4.


2. (C) Action request: Embassy Lima has been in dialogue
with Washington agencies for nearly a year to resolve charges
dating back to 2001 for landing, parking and other user fees
at the Lima Jorge Chavez Airport (ref B). We offer a
proposal in paragraph 4 that will resolve this significant
bilateral dispute at no cost to the U.S. government and in a
manner fully consistent with the U.S. interest. The Foreign
Minister has called me twice in recent days to urge prompt
steps to resolve this matter. He reports that Lima Airport
Partners (the operating company) has said it will otherwise
curtail services.


3. (U) Background: Under a 1996 agreement between the USG
and GOP, all narcotics related flights are exempted from
paying fees at Peruvian airports. In 2001, the GOP awarded a
bid to a private consortium, Lima Airport Partners (LAP),to
manage Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport. Per the
terms of its contract, the GOP reimburses LAP for the cost of
servicing flights that are exempt from fees. On May 5, 2005,
the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent us a diplomatic
note requesting payment for all U.S. government flights made
between February 14, 2001 and March 29, 2005. The note also
requested that the Embassy indicate the narcotics-related
flights, to exempt them from fees. The MFA has told the
Embassy that the Ministry of Transportation has the funds to
pay the fees but needs documentation that they were covered
by a fee waiver agreement to do so. MFA has also noted that
it has entered into bilateral agreements with a number of
countries to waive fees (a symbolic one dollar charge is
levied) for state-owned aircraft and expressed willingness to
explore such an agreement with the United States. In Refs A
and C, the Department advised that the USG considers Jorge
Chavez to be a state-owned airport which, in keeping with
international practice, should not charge U.S. state-owned
aircraft that use the facility. The Embassy was instructed
not to indicate which flights were narcotics-related but
provided additional questions to review whether Jorge Chavez
airport is state-owned.


4. (C) Proposal: We have determined, based on concrete
information at Post, that all flights for which we have
records were narcotics related. There are 20 flights which
are not documented in our records; nothing indicates that
they are not narcotics related. We propose that:

--we send a diplomatic note to the MFA, stating that to the
best of our knowledge and based on records available to the
Embassy, all flights on the list sent to us by MFA are
narcotics related. The dip note will also note for the
record that it is U.S. policy, based on customary
international practice, not to pay landing, parking and other
fees for our state-owned aircraft that use government owned
airports.

--the Department authorize Post to enter into negotiations
with the GOP for an agreement on reciprocal waiver of future
fees for state-owned aircraft, based on guidance in Ref C.

STRUBLE