Ecuador buys four times as much as it sells to South Korea, but 79% of its non-oil imports are inputs used to produce goods here in the country. The latest negotiations for better access and greater trade with the Asian nation began this Monday, April 3, in Seoul with the expectation of finalizing a trade agreement.

Currently, this market receives more than 55 Ecuadorian export products, of which the main ones are shrimp, minerals and metals, bananas, fish products and crustaceans, and animal feed, among these five products 98% of non-oil exports are concentrated. 2022 was not good for sales, the Federation of Ecuadorian Exporters (Fedexpor) reports a drop of 29%, reaching $89 million. Imports increased by 9% to 416 million dollars.

Thus, the non-oil trade balance is unfavorable for Ecuador at 327 million dollars, as in previous years. The largest deficit was 559 million dollars in 2018, and the smallest was 188 dollars in 2020.

There are 24 negotiating tables for the trade deal, and seven have already closed: technical barriers to trade, trade facilitation, trade defense, competition, environment, labor and electronic commerce. Ecuador’s negotiating team traveled over the weekend to define the remaining.

The Minister of Production, Julio José Prado, indicates that this contract is the most extensive that Ecuador has ever negotiated. The Government’s expectations are that in this round of negotiations, which is being held in Seoul, an agreement with Korea will be finalized, which is currently the market for more than 1,000 Ecuadorian companies that are related to export or import with that country.

These are the ten products most exported to South Korea:

Six of these products had a decline in sales during 2022.

These are the ten most imported products from South Korea: