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Lack of a trade agreement with Mexico may halt Ecuador’s presence at the Pacific Alliance Summit

Published on September 27, 2022

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Ecuador will be invited to the Pacific Alliance Summit in November as a full member. However, if there is no commercial agreement with Mexico by then, the country won’t attend, said Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín.

Ecuador may not attend as a full member at the Summit of the Pacific Alliance, which will take place in November 2022, because the country has not yet reached a trade agreement with Mexico.

This said Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín in an interview with Teleamazonas, on September 26, 2022

“There is a unanimous vote of all the countries to invite Ecuador as a full member to that Summit. However, if we do not have our bilateral agreement with Mexico before November, we will not attend,” she stated.

For Ecuador, the Pacific Alliance is a platform that would allow it to negotiate with other trade blocks, especially the Asia-Pacific.

Troubled Shrimp

Holguín recognized that shrimp is an irritating issue, but not bananas and tuna, issues that have already been worked on and on which “there is a prior agreement.”

“Perhaps President López Obrador did not have the information at hand,” said the Foreign Minister, alluding to the statements by the President of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador.

On September 22nd, López Obrador said that three flagship products from Ecuador prevented signing the agreement, after almost four years of negotiation.

The President of Mexico said that the country must protect its businessmen.

“Mexico’s fishermen, the tuna industries, must be defended,” said López Obrador.

Because of this, the Ecuadorian tuna sector issued a statement rejecting the statements of the Mexican president.

Ecuadorian proposal

At the Summit of the Americas, held in June 2022, President Guillermo Lasso asked Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard for a response to Ecuador’s proposal on market access for Ecuadorian shrimp and bananas.

Three months have passed and there is still no statement from Mexico.

“I fully respect the times of the political interests that Mexico has. We will make our interests respected, if there is a counterproposal that affects any of the industries in our country,” said Holguín.

However, the Chancellor is hopeful that an agreement will be reached.

“We hope that within those time frames, without this creating pressure to make a bad decision on any of the parties, we will reach an understanding,” he said. Holguín reiterated that there is a fluid relationship with Mexico on issues such as migration.

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