Ecuador will sign a trade agreement with South Korea in advance, the plan was for President Guillermo Lasso and his Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol to take that step during a trip to that country that the Ecuadorian president was supposed to take this Saturday, October 7. , He was in the United States the night before, and because of the latest deaths in Guayaquil prison, he announced his return.

It was not announced whether the trip was delayed or cancelled. In any case, this commercial contract is one that needs to be signed. The deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Trade explained this and other processes of trade agreements reached by this Government.

Guillermo Lasso will travel to South Korea on October 7 to finalize negotiations on a free trade agreement with that Asian country

What is the pre-signing of a trade agreement?

The deputy foreign trade ministry explained that the pre-signing of the agreement is an internal process that South Korea has after closing trade negotiations, as is the case with Ecuador.

“With the pre-signature, the negotiations are formally closed and the text is available in English, enabling the following internal processes in Korea, such as the translation of the Agreement into Korean and, from the Ecuadorian side, into Spanish, in order to comply with all Korean legal procedures and the Agreement will be ready for the final signing of texts in three languages,” the State Portfolio detailed.

The main event on the agenda in Korea is a meeting between the president and his counterpart and the pre-signing of a trade agreement, also an investment forum and meetings with Korean businessmen to promote the future benefits of the agreement and encourage Korean companies to continue investing in Ecuador.

Minister Legarda recalled in a video posted on the ministry’s X account that the current administration continued negotiations with South Korea that were interrupted six years ago and that they managed to conclude a comprehensive agreement within a year. “It not only considers tariff benefits, but also disciplines in health, small and medium enterprises, the environment and labor issues, with the aim of strengthening international obligations and including Ecuador,” Legarda said.

What Ecuador is buying and selling to South Korea, on the brink of a new trade deal

He added that the agreement with South Korea will give Ecuador access to a market of more than 51 million inhabitants with high purchasing power, which will allow an increase in non-oil exports between 20% and 30% of products such as shrimp, roses, broccoli, dragon fruit, pineapple , mangoes, among other current products and a new export offer.

By the second half of this year, the South Korean market received more than 55 Ecuadorian export products, the main of which were shrimp, minerals and metals, bananas, fishery products and crustaceans, and animal feed, among these five products were Concentrates of 98% non-petroleum of export. 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 has an unfavorable balance of 327 million dollars for Ecuador, as in previous years. The largest deficit was 559 million dollars in 2018, and the smallest was 188 million dollars in 2020.

What happens to the agreements signed with China and Costa Rica?

In the meantime, the other two agreements that have already been signed, with China and Costa Rica, are continuing, but they are in the process of being approved by the Constitutional Court, and the ministry predicts that they will be ready with the final opinions before the new one takes office. The National Assembly, which must review and approve them to enter into force.

The agreement with China is in the phase of constitutionality evaluation at the Constitutional Court, in accordance with the deadlines established by law, a decision on constitutionality is expected by mid-October, with which it could be transferred to the new Assembly when it is adopted. installed, repeated the vice president of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

The Constitutional Court received nine ‘amicus curiae’ for and four against the agreement between China and Ecuador

In the case of Costa Rica, following the observations made by the Court on some articles of the investment chapter, the technical teams and trade bodies of Ecuador and Costa Rica met and an agreement was reached to withdraw the articles that gave rise to the observations. and continue with the approval process at the Constitutional Court. “In the coming days, the Presidency of the Republic will send the reached agreement to the Constitutional Court, in order to continue the procedure established by the Law and give an opinion on the constitutionality of the Agreement, in order to once again continue with the ratification process in the National Assembly. take possession”, added the VP.