Currently, pitahaya and blueberries are products in high demand by the Asian giant, said the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, Sonsoles García.

While waiting for the first products from China and Ecuador under the trade agreement to reach their destination and see how business improves, Ecuador is working to take advantage of this agreement that came into effect on May 1, 2024 for new products and the first table phytosanitary is for blueberries.

The Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, Sonsoles García, shows the expectations that exist in the trade agreements and four free zones that are being processed. He assures that there has been no impact on trade with Mexico, although that country declared trade relations with Ecuador broken after the arrest of former vice president Jorge Glas in its Embassy in Quito.

-Of the trade agreement with China, is there already any initial evaluation, have there already been meetings regarding the phytosanitary permits that some products need?

Regarding the agreement with China, let us remember that it begins on May 1, with the vessels that left China and Ecuador since May 1, that is, it takes more or less 40-45 days for the vessel to arrive, so Only in June will we have data on what is arriving and what is leaving from Ecuador to China in order to understand how this bilateral trade relationship is beginning to grow and become more dynamic.

Regarding the phytosanitary tables, we are working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agroquality for the phytosanitary opening of blueberries. At this time, the products most in demand by China are dragon fruit and blueberries. Dragon fruit already has phytosanitary opening, and for blueberries we are working on that table for phytosanitary opening.

-How long does this process last?

Usually they are processes that can last up to years, but with having a trade agreement, there is a specific chapter of a technical table on phytosanitary opening, so we are already working to see if we send some delegates to China or if some delegates from China come here, because They want to see the production, the good practices, the safety procedures within the blueberry farms. Or if we are going to make it virtual.

-Is there an agenda for what other product is next in priority?

Yes, the Ministry of Agriculture is working on this to understand what is the priority of the products that are going to be opened for phytosanitary purposes that they do not have, because they may already have them. Of which it does not have to be seen what the priority of priority and importance for the phytosanitary opening is.

-When will the trade agreement with South Korea be signed?

The pre-signing was last year, we are waiting for the translation and a legal technical review that South Korea is doing on the documents. They have told us that possibly in the second half of this year we will have a date for the signing of the documents. and therefore for each country to begin its internal ratification process.

-You started negotiations with Canada and there is a lot of talk about the United Arab Emirates, how are these processes going?

We signed a joint declaration with the United Arab Emirates for the beginning of negotiations for a trade agreement and an opening of investments, we are fine-tuning the details to begin with the negotiation agenda that will be hybrid, possibly most of the meetings will be virtual .

With Canada we already had the first round that was virtual, we are going to have a second round now in June. Then we have a visit from Ecuador to Canada and then we have a visit from Canada here to Ecuador.

-AND   How long will these processes take before new trade agreements can be signed?

I believe that Canada will be ready in December and the United Arab Emirates want it to be very fast, they hope it will be no later than November, but everything will depend on the start date.

-With these two countries, how much can exports improve?

In both we have the estimate, with respect to Canada it is approximately 8% growth in exports and with the Arab Emirates we believe it could be even more. With the United Arab Emirates we have a positive trade balance; last year we sold more than US$600 million and bought US$14 million from them. However, given that we are deepening the commercial relationship with the United Arab Emirates, we see the possibility of starting to buy more derivatives and more fertilizers from companies that are located in the United Arab Emirates.

-In the report to the nation, President Daniel Noboa presented figures of eleven investment contracts for US$257 million. In what sectors will they be and how many jobs will they generate?

They are mainly aquaculture and agricultural projects and we also have the construction sector. There are 1,900 new jobs.

-In what terms would these investments be executed?

There are investment projects that are presented when execution has already begun, others before execution begins, everything depends on each company, but usually the work numbers can be seen approximately from the second, third year directly from when they begin. make the investment.

-Of the economic laws that have been put into effect, what effects will there be on investment?

Regarding the issue of free zones specifically, we currently have around four initiatives to qualify the free zones that are already being processed and processed within the Ministry. We hope that in the coming months we can give the good news about the qualifications of the new zones. frank. These will take some time to be built and then companies that want to qualify as users of goods or services within the free zones will have to come so that they also begin their qualification and thus begin to energize these free zones. There is one that is in Cañar, one in Guayas, one in Pichincha and the other is in Santa Elena.

In the economic efficiency law, free zones were created, for energy competitiveness projects, at this moment there are 13 projects that are ready to go, there is Villonaco and El Aromo, which are wind and solar, they are ready for it to begin, ( so that) the president will lay the first stone. And this is simply part of this entire process of initiatives to generate investments in non-conventional renewable energies.

-How are trade relations with Mexico?

We have not received any notification of termination of commercial relations, let us remember that we do not have a commercial agreement with Mexico, there is no treaty to terminate. Trade is rather between private companies, what the Government does is be a facilitator of this exchange and to date we have not had a real impact where Mexican companies have stopped buying from Ecuadorian companies.

-They also work on contraband control and a resolution is being prepared, what is it about?

As leader of the economic sectoral cabinet, on February 15 we managed to declare the emergency and the fight against illicit trade, of which we have created four technical tables:

One is port control and border crossings where the cabinet is working jointly with the Ministry of the Interior to generate a security protocol in the ports and to be able to implement container profiling that will allow us to carry out a frontal fight against physical and technical smuggling in order to be able to collect better, be clear about the goods that are arriving in the country and to ensure that there is no under-invoicing that could affect the local industry.

The second is internal control where there is coordination between different institutions such as Senae, Police, Arcsa, Agrocalidad, to review whether Ecuadorian products and imported products comply with quality standards.

The third table is against digital piracy and smuggling, which we are currently having a lot of problems with.

And the last is the economic and tax regime where several entities are working to identify how the Organic Law of the Internal Tax Regime, the Production Code, is organized and see if the regulations are facilitating trade and also understand how we can make a better tax regime for local and foreign investors and that can be an ecosystem of tax stability and legal security.