The United States System of Tariff Preferences will be renewed in the coming months, according to Vice Minister Daniel Legarda

Ecuador will once again have in the coming months the General System of Preferences (SGP) granted by the United States, indicated the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade, Daniel Legarda.

“The United States government team has told us that the renewal of tariff preferences within the framework of the GSP will be implemented very soon. This is excellent news for exporters, because just over 20% of non-oil shipments to the United States depend on this mechanism,” said Legarda, who added that this renewal will have a retroactive effect and will be in force until, probably, 2025.

The deputy minister made this announcement in the framework of the IV meeting of the Trade and Investment Council with the United States (TIC, for its acronym in English), which took place this Wednesday in Guayaquil. The Council meeting was held between February 15 and 16.

At the meeting, officials from the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries (MPCEIP) and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) They held technical tables in which they discussed various issues of bilateral interest: agricultural, labor and environmental issues.

Legarda indicated that three major aspects were maintained during the day. The first was the evaluation of what has been done, to date, to implement the First Phase Protocol which is maintained with the North American country. In this sense, the work was carried out on issues of environmental sustainability and reinforcement of labor policy.

A second point is civil society involvement, that is, the participation of MSMEs, unions, environmental groups and unions. And the third big point, said Legarda, is the definition of the work for the coming months.

“There is an evaluation that we have to make the technical teams on what subjects or disciplines can be incorporated into what will be called a second protocol or second phasewith the purpose of deepening commercial and investment relations”, he pointed out.

Scott Higgins: We want to work with our partners and focus on the agreements and protocols that already exist

In addition, he announced that a technical visit to Washington is planned for the second half of the year, to have more clarity on the issues that will be deepened in this eventual protocol.

Julio José Prado, Minister of Production, pointed out that it has been left clear intention to reach a long-term agreement and, given Ecuador’s compliance with the initial agreement, the possibility of advancing to a new stage is being analyzed. “We have emphasized the historic relationship between the two countries and that their balances are complementary. For this reason, we need a commercial agreement with our main partner”.

Prado also indicated that a bill has just been introduced in that country that seeks to strengthen trade relations.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador Jayme White, Deputy Trade Representative, expressed the will to continue the technical dialogue and analyze ways of cooperation between both countries, in accordance with the provisions of this ICT conference.

In the next few hours, the MPCEIP and the USTR will issue a joint statement detailing the progress and results achieved during the meeting. (I)