Francisco Carrión Mena: ‘i’m going with the mission to open doors with the United States’

Ecuadornews:

Francisco Carrión Mena, 64, was chancellor between 2005 and 2006, and has held important diplomatic positions. He was called by President Lenin Moreno to head the Embassy of Ecuador in the United States. Yesterday he presented his credentials in Washington.

What scenario has your predecessor, Francisco Borja? 

He told me that Ecuador has to recover its presence and image before the US, whose doors are not very open to say. I go with the mission of opening doors, we have to look for them to open up on issues such as trade, investment, culture, technology, knowledge, etc.

Is that the most urgent? 

Everything is urgent. The diplomatic offices should promote exports. If we want to encourage them, we must create an environment of  legal institutional and legal stability.

And do you think we have improved on that? 

The fact that we can talk quietly, for example, with EL UNIVERSO newspaper, is a sign that this has changed. In eight months, things are different and this is essential to be able to sell.

With what strategies? 

Deepen with countries with which there is economic complementarity, not ideology. We all have an ideology and it is not that this is bad, but ideologization, like the one in which the previous government fell, did us a lot of damage; we came to establish relationships with countries with which we have no comparative advantage.

Rafael Correa criticized the US for ten years. We lost the opportunity for ten years. I return to the Foreign Service after eight. And I separated, precisely, because I did not agree with many of the positions of President Correa’s time. For example, the ATPDA (tariff preferences), which President Correa renounced, was a concession granted by the United States. It gave Ecuador and other countries their fight against drug trafficking. And President Correa, in an outburst he had, said that we do not want that benefit. You have to be pragmatic. We have to get the complex out of our heads.

“This is simple: if you have a million dollars and you are told that there is no security to come to Ecuador, do not invest. Nothing forces you to invest, except legal security.” Francisco Carrión, ambassador of Ecuador in the USA. (I)

Source: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/01/25/nota/6583669/voy-mision-abrir-puertas-estados-unidos