Negotiations with the EU, key for the exportable supply in Ecuador

Failing to reach an agreement of trade negotiations between Ecuador and the European Union (EU), the Ecuadorian entrepreneurs who export to the European market are concerned about their future from January 2015.

This is because starting next year the export supply of Ecuador will pay tariffs due to the completion of the General System of Preferences (GSP Plus), which allows the entry of nationals products into the EU without paying taxes.

One way to solve it was signing a commercial agreement and defining a mechanism for maintaining the preferences while the agreement is effective. For this, the Third Round of Negotiations, which ended last week in Brussels was performed.

Felipe Ribadeneira, President of Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (Fedexpor for its Spanish acronym), ensures that there is still an option in July to close the deal, because holidays in Europe begin in August and it is possible that negotiators are replaced, which would delay more the negotiation .

For the Government, the fact of not reaching an agreement and being devoid of GSP Plus is worrying, because losses in one year, according to ECLAC, would amount $ 200 million dollars, although Fedexpor estimates it would be $ 465, 2 million.

One of the most affected products that would be tuna, on which a tariff of 24% would be applied.