Agreements with countries in Asia and Central America and entry into the Alliance for Development, contingency plan if FTA with Mexico is not signed

Ecuador always had a contingency plan in case the trade agreement with Mexico was not signed. This was stated this Thursday by Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín.

This, after the president of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador, announced last week that Ecuadorian bananas and shrimp will not enter the treaty. Ecuador’s response was that without these products the agreement would not be signed.

Banana and shrimp producers turn the page on a possible failed agreement with Mexico and recommend focusing on closing with China and South Korea

“Minister Julio José Prado and President Guillermo Lasso always foresaw what could happen with certain political changes in the region and therefore the idea of ​​activating all trade agreements with Asian countries, with Central American countries, in parallel with Mexico’s objective. Ecuador’s entry into the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), which is perhaps one of the most important diplomatic milestones in 2022,” said the foreign minister during an interview in Teleamazon.

Holguín explained that the ADD, which integrates Ecuador together with the Dominican Republic, Panama and Costa Rica, is one of the most important regional platforms in relation to the United States, Canada and Europe.

“In commercial terms, in terms of diplomacy for the ecological transition, it has become one of the most important points of bilateral cooperation with these countries and these regions, so this helps us not only think about the negative of not having closed the agreement with Mexico or not close it, but in the great possibilities that were opened with this vision of a contingency plan that Minister Prado had with President Lasso”, said the foreign minister.

In addition, it did not close the door to the fact that the differences with Mexico can be resolved.

He revealed that during the change of command in Brazil, in which Lula Da Silva will begin his third presidential term, scheduled for this Sunday, January 1, 2023, a meeting with Mexico will be sought “to understand what the arguments have been for the last decision of the Mexican government that surprised us in a certain way, because we had been advancing, as Minister Prado stated, in the inclusion of shrimp and bananas after the last meeting of our presidents”.

Ecuador-Mexico Agreement: it is likely that the issue will remain on ‘stand by’ and later one of the governments will take it up again

However, the official reiterated that without these products it is impossible to sign a trade agreement with Mexico, although he clarified that the Pacific Alliance is currently in a kind of paralysis due to the diplomatic problem that has existed between Peru and Mexico.

“We will not lose hope that in a short time Mexico can have a new analysis on the inclusion of these two products because it goes hand in hand with the discourse that they have had to have regional, hemispheric solidarity, especially with Latin America” Holguin maintained. (YO)