The negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Mexico and Ecuador remain stuck due to lack of agreement on the opening of tuna, shrimp, financial services and bananas.
«There are four issues that have not been concluded, we have not reached a single agreement, we are also in review and we are having working meetings,» Raquel Buenrostro, Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, said in this regard.
In September 2019, Mexico and Ecuador signed the «General Framework for the Negotiation of a Productive Integration Agreement between Ecuador and Mexico» and the «Modalities for the Exchange of Tariff Offers in Access to Goods Markets between Mexico and Ecuador».
With the signing of these instruments, both countries formalized the start of trade negotiations.
Officials from the Ministry of Economy have already met with shrimp and tuna producers, and will soon meet with banana producers and representatives of the financial sector.
«In the Economy, what we have to play with is certain balances; then we have to decide between generating an indiscriminate opening of some product or protecting certain social sectors,» added Buenrostro in an appearance this Tuesday in the Mexican Senate.
The General Negotiation Framework contemplated the negotiation of 19 chapters, which seek to develop disciplines with high standards, in accordance with the current international context and which will provide certainty and guarantees for trade and investment operators on both sides.
FTA
From 2020 to 2021, seven rounds of negotiations were held, in which substantial progress was made in the various chapters of the new trade agreement.
The negotiation of this agreement will not only seek to promote increased trade and investment flows, but also has, among other objectives, to favor Ecuador’s accession process to the Pacific Alliance, whose requirements establish having a bilateral free trade agreement with the member countries of the Alliance, made up of Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru.
«Much of the shrimp is done through cooperatives. We have to balance an indiscriminate opening or certain measures that regulate and are gradual, that are always for the benefit of the majority but without affecting the social fabric,» said Buenrostro.
The official indicated that the result will be known in the course of this year.
