The signing of the trade agreement between Ecuador and South Korea will take place between September and October, the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries Daniel Legarda announced on Wednesday, August 9, noting that the day before he held a virtual meeting with his counterpart from Asia country, by Ahn Duk-geun.

The signing of a trade agreement between the two countries is pending, after last April the then head of the production portfolio, Julio José Prado, informed President Guillermo Lasso that the negotiations between the two countries were closed, which resumed in March 2022 after six years ended the agreement.

Minister Daniel Legarda: The calendar allows us to sign an agreement with South Korea

“I had a meeting with my South Korean counterpart, the trade minister, we also expect the signing of the agreement closer to what we hope will be in September and October,” Legarda said in a radio interview. Center This Wednesday, August 9.

The minister also referred to the dialogue he had with his colleague, through X. “The commercial contract is closer to signing. I’m sharing a message from South Korea that includes the positive meeting I had with Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun to discuss the next steps towards this important bilateral milestone,” he wrote on the social network.

South Korean Minister Ahn Duk-geun carried out a similar action on the same social network, where he wrote in English about the meeting with the Ecuadorian.

“The Minister of Trade, Dukgeun Ahn, held talks with the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries of Ecuador, Daniel Legard Touma, on August 9 to promote the Korea-Ecuadorian SECA (Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement) negotiations and strengthen trade cooperation, investments and the supply chain”, he pointed out.

Legarda’s announcement comes after the Constitutional Court (CC) approved the trade agreement between Ecuador and Costa Rica at the beginning of this month, but made several remarks, and that now – according to the minister – contact with that Central American country has been established to remove those doubts. While the agreement was signed with China on May 10 in the CC for review.

“In 17 articles, he made remarks related to the issue of arbitration of state investors,” said the minister, adding that they respect the opinion, but do not share the opinion because they believe it is approaching a decision of a political nature. before legal – technique.

Find out why the agreement with China would not have the same problems as the one with Costa Rica in the Constitutional Court

Among the objections of the CC is chapter 11 of the agreement, which refers to financial services, in which it is pointed out that the financial system, including the foreign one, “must be regulated and controlled by regulations and special entities of control and differentiated, which are in charge of preserving its safety, stability, transparency and strength”.

The comments also referred to articles 11.20 and from 15.20 to 15.35, including annexes 15.18 and 15.26 on the chapter on investments, according to the CC, they are incompatible with the literalness of article 422 of the Constitution, “because the Ecuadorian state cedes the power of jurisdiction at the instance of international arbitration , since the aforementioned articles consider the possibility of settling contractual disputes between investors, that is, natural and legal persons and states, through instances of international arbitration, such as ICSID”.

According to experts, objections to the trade agreement with Costa Rica must be considered so that future agreements do not have the same reservations on the part of the CC.

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador calls for renegotiation of some articles of the trade agreement with Costa Rica

According to the minister, he also talked with Panama and the Dominican Republic about the negotiations with other countries in order to prepare the project tasks for the negotiations. While the agreement with Mexico was “agreed” and that “the political decision that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador must make is above all related to the shrimp case.”

Legarda also noted that the negotiations with Canada have progressed “strongly” in the pre-negotiation phase, that exploratory dialogues are being conducted to define the topics of interest, the goals and the depth of the agreement. “It will be advanced, in fact, negotiations with Canada will practically be launched so that the next administration can continue with it, but we will responsibly start the process with equipment, with financing so that everything can go its way,” he pointed out.