After months of intense negotiations, Ecuador and South Korea completed the pre-signing of the Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement (SECA), as a prelude to full ratification of the trade agreement. The event took place on Tuesday, October 10 in Seoul (Korea), and the foreign trade ministers of both countries, Daniel Legarda and Bang Moon Kyu, were responsible for signing the documents.

From Ecuador, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, pointed out that the agreement opens the door for Ecuadorian products to access a market of 51 million consumers, which will have a positive effect on 98.8% of the country’s export offer, which will enjoy tariff benefits.

“We have a projection of growth in non-oil exports of 27%, all of which will translate into greater competitive advantages, economic growth, job creation and benefits for Ecuadorian families,” Lasso said on social media, while negotiations were frozen. six years and continued during his administration.

The president was originally scheduled to be in Seoul for the event, but canceled his trip due to incidents that took place in the country’s prisons last weekend.

The President’s General Secretariat for Communications (Segcom) described the event as “a new commercial milestone”.

In an official statement, the entity specified that pre-signing is a mandatory process in order to ratify the agreements between the parties and guarantee the completeness and precision of the text agreed in the document, originally drafted in English.

After Tuesday’s event in Seoul, what continues is the translation of the instrument into the languages ​​of the two countries, in order to develop internal protocols in each territory and, consequently, be ready for the validation and ratification phases.

In addition, Segcom indicated that as part of the agreement, Korea will contribute to the issues of efficient production, innovative methods and machinery to recycle products. The construction of a technological plant for the development of the food industry in Ecuador is also being considered.

Within the basket of Ecuadorian products that will benefit from the agreement are coffee, cocoa, chocolates, snacks, dairy products, among others, which will enter Korea with 0 percent tariffs. While bananas, fishing and sweets will have tax reductions for short periods. While meat, dairy products, frozen potatoes, blueberries, pineapples, mangoes will enter for the first time.

For sectors considered sensitive, such as metalworking, textiles and white goods, the agreement includes exclusions and long periods of tax relief.

The economic cooperation agreement contains 23 chapters that include goods and services, public procurement, intellectual property, electronic commerce, cooperation for sectors such as agribusiness, manufacturing, fisheries, culture, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), among others.

The Ecuadorian delegation that went to Seoul consists of Minister Daniel Legarda and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gustavo Manrique. José Antonio Hidalgo, from the Banana Cluster of Ecuador, attended on behalf of the banana sector.