After closing the sixth round of negotiations between Ecuador and South Korea, it was agreed that the seventh will be in mid-September.

This Friday, July 15, closed in the Korean capital, Seoul, the sixth round of negotiations between Ecuador and South Korea for the signing of the Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement (SECA, for its acronym in English). This period of talks between the negotiating teams of both countries began last Monday.

In the afternoon, the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries reported that “important progress has been made at the different negotiating tables, which were positively resumed after six years”; and the head of that State race, Julio José Prado, revealed that it was closed with an advance of 55%.

In addition, it was agreed that the seventh round of negotiations will take place in mid-September, although it was not specified whether the new meeting between the two negotiating teams will be in South Korea or in Ecuadorian territory.

After six years, Ecuador and South Korea returned to the negotiating table to sign a trade agreement

The negotiation with Korea began in 2015 and was resumed in 2022. During that period, according to Prado, the process only advanced by 10%.

Meanwhile, this agreement includes a total of 16 issues: access to markets, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade defense, rules of origin, cross-border trade in services, institutional provisions, dispute settlement and investment.

Likewise, new generation matters such as labor and environmental issues, competition, telecommunications, intellectual property, cooperation, electronic commerce and trade in services are included.

The Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Daniel Legada, stressed that the main objective of the agreement will be to increase the presence of Ecuadorian products and eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers.

According to figures from the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE), in 2021, South Korea was the 18th destination of Ecuadorian non-oil exports to the world, with a value of $124.7 million. Likewise, it occupied the 20th position with respect to agricultural and fishing exports, with a value of $96.5 million.

After 6 years, Ecuador resumes negotiations for a trade agreement with South Korea

Between 2017 and 2021, Ecuador exported $531.9 million in non-oil products to the South Korean market. In 2021, the main non-oil export products from Ecuador to South Korea were shrimp, metal waste, bananas, fish, other metal manufactures, other chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and cocoa.

Meanwhile, the Ministry indicated that after the completion of the sixth round in Seoul, “intense work will be activated by the technical teams in the months prior to this new round.” (YO)