How does the attached room work and what role has it played in the negotiations with China and other trade agreements?

In ten months, Ecuador and China agreed and closed all the technical details of the trade agreement that both countries signed on May 10, a record deadline, according to Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries.

It is the second emblematic agreement that Ecuador has signed in the last decade, along with that of the European Union (EU), with the difference that the latter was paralyzed for five years, and then it took about three more years of negotiations to enter. entered into force in 2017.

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These two processes have another aspect that differentiates them: the fourth addition. A modality that was created in 2021, but became official in July 2022 with the ministerial agreement MPCEIP-2022-0009-A, and which creates a direct dialogue between the ministry and the actors of the production sector, through the Ecuadorian Business Committee (EEC), in which all the progress of negotiations.

This mechanism was put into practice in the negotiations that Ecuador conducted with South Korea, Mexico, China and Costa Rica, with the last two culminating in the signing of their agreements that have not yet entered into force, and South Korea in the technical closure of negotiations pending the signing of the agreement, although the negotiations with Mexico were in wait.

After the signing of the agreement with China, Minister Prado thanked the CEE and the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor) for creating the modality and assured that it is crucial to achieve balanced and informed internal and external negotiations.

Felipe Ribadeneira, executive director of Fedexpor and who was at the head of the Business Committee when the fourth supplement was institutionalized, confirms that through this modality the private sector participates directly in the trade negotiations by advising and strengthening the information required by the negotiation team of the Government for technical circles.

Ribadeneira explains that the business sector bears the costs involved in the operation of the connected room. However, it is emphasized that the most relevant transversal area is where the main developments of the trade agenda, and especially individual negotiations, are discussed.

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“In previous negotiations, the country has not been able to institutionalize this figure of private participation with the public sector for trade negotiations, in fact, one of the perceived advantages of this process is that the information is completely transparent for the productive sectors,” analyzed Fedexpora’s headline.

Francisco Rivadeneira, who was the Minister of Foreign Trade of Ecuador during the negotiation of the agreement with the EU, admits that during this process there was no modality, but he assures that there was a constant dialogue between the production sector, the private sector and the civil sector. society Throughout the process.

“Corpei played a fundamental role in this process, it financed and organized many participation processes of different industries or sectors, for example, it took them to Brussels to meet with their colleagues, with their customers, doing a convincing process there,” recalls Ribadeneira , who is now the representative of the Corporation for the Promotion of Exports and Investments (Corpei) in Quito and the Sierra region.

Regarding the participation of the fourth deputy in the negotiations with China, the former minister, now the representative of Corpei in Quito and the Sierra region, assures that he was absolutely active and fully aligned with the government representatives who were in the negotiations.

Although he clarifies that the roommate does not necessarily have to be in an adjacent separate room or sit next to the negotiator during the process. “The fourth supplement implies constant participation in the negotiation process in order to help the negotiation team in making strategic decisions, if necessary.” It is also pointed out that the modality creation process began when Ecuador began negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States that began in 2004, but it was not capitalized on.

Gabriela Uquillas, executive director of CEE, points out that the modality of the fourth attachment is not only used by Ecuador, but also by other countries in their processes of negotiating trade agreements, and confirms that the idea was to replicate what was done a few years ago. when he worked on the free trade agreement with the USA, a process that did not see the light of day, the leader regrets, but in which there was a lot of dynamics of joint cooperation between the public and private sectors.

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He assures that the enrichment that the public sector receives from the contribution of the private sector is very transcendental, emphasizing that private actors know the individual commercial dynamics, risk factors, sensitivities and specific needs of each sector.

In the specific case of China Uquillas, he points out: “We can say that from 1 to 10, if we had to evaluate, the fourth deputy had a participation of 6. Although he was able to cooperate a lot with the information requested by the states, there is still a lot of work to be done on further improvement of activities, dynamics where the exchange of information is two-way”.

Uquillas warns that this time there was much more of a scheme where the private sector provided information to the public sector, but there was not the same level of reciprocity.

Little participation in the process with Mexico

In the case of Mexico, the executive director of the Business Committee reveals that the fourth deputy participated only in the last two rounds of negotiations and expresses regret that in this process the private sector did not have a dynamic and active participation as in other processes with China, Costa Rica and South Korea.

“We are sure that the participation would have been deepened a little more, better results would certainly have been achieved or perhaps it would have been noticed more quickly that there were sensitive points that the countries simply could not harmonize”, says Uquillas, who emphasizes that in the penultimate round Mexico arrived with its entire fourth deputy with highly integrated participation of the public and private sectors.

“We can’t close a trade deal with Mexico if bananas, shrimp and tuna aren’t included in some kind of market access”

Regarding the future of the fourth deputy for the new negotiations, Uquillas believes that both parties, the public and private sectors, must be highly trained on the scope of the agreement and the vision of the country that is to be achieved, and also indicates that there must be strict trust, but also the confidentiality of information that handled by both sides.

“The success of this is transparency, but also the certainty of the public sector that what is given to the private sector is for purely technical purposes and contributions, and not for private purposes,” advises Uquillas.