Correa announced an increase in tariffs for Andean partners

The Ecuadorian government will increase tariffs on products coming from Colombia and Peru in similar percentages to the devaluations of their currencies.

This measure, the President said, is because Ecuador due to dollarization, can not adjust the exchange rate to counter external factors such as falling oil prices and,is losing competitiveness of its products abroad.

Correa justified the tariff program that is being designed, whose resources will be transferred to the exporters of flowers, the most affected in 2015.
“The WTO (World Trade Organization) and the Andean Community impose limits on tariffs that we can put to our business partners and in this case to the Andean countries, unless there is a potential external crisis or if we have what is happening in neighbor countries, which are large depreciations,” said the President.
Correa explained that, for example, if Colombia devalued the peso by 22%, Ecuador will put the same percentage of tariff on Colombian products entering to Ecuador.