Update to: Guillermo Lasso’s first 100 days: a highlight on business initiatives and economics
Published: Volume 5, Issue 48

The President Guillermo Lasso said this Thursday that the country is close to closing a free trade agreement with Mexico, which will allow the Andean nation to join the Pacific Alliance in the first months of 2022.

“We are about to complete a free trade agreement with Mexico, which is an essential condition for entering the Ecuador to the Alliance of the Pacific, where we hope to be in the first quarter of next year,” praised the President during the inauguration of the forum “Ecuador Open for Business” which seeks to attract investment to the country.

The trade agreement with Mexico, one of the main investors in Ecuador, has been in the sights of the Ecuadorian center-right politician since he came to power on May 24th, in continuity with an initiative launched by his predecessor Lenín Moreno.

Ecuador already has agreements with Chile, Peru and Colombia, the other members of the Alliance, so the treaty with Mexico is crucial to enter the economic body as a full member.

After visiting Mexico in the first months of his government, Lasso agreed with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to set up eleven negotiating tables to address each of the aspects involved in the treaty and resolve differences in investment matters, tariffs, products, technicalities and other aspects. Some of them have already finished their work.

Lasso said that he has also requested the inclusion of the country in the Trans-Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement, and that he is holding talks with the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and of Russia, Vladimir Putin, with a view to initiating trade agreements with each other.

“This is the country of opportunities, nobody stops us here,” he stressed.