The trade agreement with China took another step on the way to entering into force, and a similar panorama happened for Costa Rica. The first is in the Commission for International Relations, and for the second the Constitutional Court has already given a positive opinion after correcting the constitutional objections to some articles of the investment chapter, with which the Presidency of the Republic must send it to the National Assembly.

And right there, in the Assembly, former ministers of production believe that the treatment of these contracts should be among the priorities, because the creation of investments, employment and exports depends on their approval.

The trade agreement with Costa Rica already has a positive opinion from the Constitutional Court

Two agreements were signed in the administration of Guillermo Lasso, and his former Minister of Production, Daniel Legarda, points out that the procedure for the internal treatment of trade agreements is already established in various regulations, so the next step with the trade agreement with Costa Rica is that after the Constitutional Court returns with a positive opinion to the Presidency of the Republic and informs the National Assembly, it is the executive that must officially send it to the legislative body to request that it be dealt with, for which there is a certain time: ten days from the notification.

And from there it is stated that there are certain processes that do not have a specific deadline, for example, the Assembly is referred, and in turn the president of the legislative body must take internal findings and, depending on the legislative agenda, send it, in this case to the Committee for International Relations and Human Mobility, which chaired by official representative Jonathan Parra.

While the trade agreement with Costa Rica is still awaiting debate in the National Assembly, the one with China has already begun the process at the legislative table on December 18, which was the first item on the agenda.

“We hope that this will happen as soon as possible, because the treatment of these tools is for the benefit of the country, producers, trade in general, exports, and that means employment opportunities. It must also be given importance in the legislative agenda,” says Legarda.

It is expected that on January 4, members of the Commission for International Relations will have a report ready on the agreement with China, which should then be presented at the plenary session. Legarda explains that there is only one report from the table, different from the treatment of the law that can be changed, and that is why there are two discussions in these projects. But in the case of trade agreements it is for ratification or rejection. “There is no possibility of change, the text has already been negotiated. There is already a precedent for this, it is nothing new, there is an agreement with the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, with Chile, etc., they all followed the same process, where the Parliament ratified them in one process. Commission report and approval at the legislative plenary session,” he explains.

“More than 9.5 billion dollars of investment contracts in two and a half years, despite the difficulties”, emphasizes Daniel Legarda on the last day of the Government

For Iván Ontaneda, who was Lenín Moreno’s Minister of Production (2019-2021), it is crucial to continue the policy of seeking and expanding new markets for a country like Ecuador that is dollarized and needs to create jobs, showing that the non-oil export sector creates 1.2 million direct jobs.

Legarda and Ontaneda agree that these trade agreements must enter into force in 2024.

Realization of agreements, other additional jobs

Ontaneda adds that after the National Assembly debates and approves the trade agreements, the start of implementation should be considered, which is another additional job. “The agreement does not work by signing it, the Ministry of Production will have the fundamental task of articulating and connecting the private production sectors in order to optimize the use of this agreement and, obviously, to work on what I have always said: in the internal competitiveness of the country, which is an unresolved issue,” he points out. .

He clarifies that when we talk about competitiveness, we don’t just talk about working, but that there is cost reduction in an expensive country, dollarized for production and now more than ever they have problems in security issues that cost the exporting sector 200 million dollars a year , a value charged directly to the cost, which cannot be passed on to clients, because it is not recognized and this leaves them out of competition with many markets, including trade agreements.

The trade agreement with Costa Rica was signed on March 1 of this year. Former president Guillermo Lasso traveled to that Central American country to sign this international instrument. While it was signed with China virtually on May 10. Then it was done by the Minister of Industry and Production, Julio José Prado, in Quito, and the Minister of Foreign Trade of China, Wang Wentao, in Beijing.