On November 14, the representative of the Republican Party, María Elvira Salazar, presented the so-called Innovation and Development Act in Ecuador (IDEA). This law would establish customs privileges for Ecuadorian products in almost six thousand subheadings of the US customs, favoring the penetration and/or increase of sales of many Ecuadorian products in this market.

There are Ecuadorian products that enter the United States duty-free, as well as many through tariffs that are below 4% of their commercial value. IDEA would favor products such as canned tuna, which currently pay a tariff of 35% (if canned in oil) or 12% (if canned in water). Among others, broccoli (which records a duty of 15 percent), canned fruits and vegetables (which pay up to 17.9 percent, depending on the tariff subheading they belong to), some categories of fresh fruits and vegetables. If it happens, the IDEA legislation presents a valuable opportunity to penetrate and/or grow the North American market for these products. Then, the interested parties and their unions must take advantage of this with effective plans. I suggest some initiatives to consider:

Sector entities or private unions must study local trade chains and those who would be the main and most desirable importers of their businessmen’s products. In the case of food, there are importers and/or distributors specializing in self-service, selling to restaurants and cafeterias, mostly in the food industry. Furthermore, it is important to know in detail the fairs for the promotion and display of food products, where their exporters would have the highest probability of contacting and selling to clients with high purchasing potential.

We are not starting from scratch in this. Public export promotion entities have information gathered over decades from clients and markets and must disseminate it more widely and with easier access than has been the case so far. In short, I suggest more intensive commercial-intelligence work for private unions than before.

Finally, it must be considered that commercial intelligence, trade shows and missions are necessary but not sufficient to implement a market penetration strategy that is sustainably successful. Key services must be articulated (provided from the US market) that optimize costs, ensure delivery reliability and keep commercial risk under control. The most competitive options for cargo, storage, consolidation and deconsolidation services. A diverse portfolio of financing options for this export. Legal services that reduce the risk of receiving perishable goods at the lowest price.

That capacities are built in private trade union or sectoral entities in order to effectively support the penetration and/or growth strategy of their constituents. (OR)