A new set of safeguards is reduced from October 26

From Wednesday, October 26, a reduction in two groups of safeguards governs. On September 15, the Committee of Foreign Trade (Comex) decided to reduce the surtaxes for subheadings by a 40% and a 25% from today. The first group will enter the country from October 25 with a 35% of the surtax. About 1390 subheadings involve a broad range of products, including meat, canned food, decorative and construction materials, tools, electronic equipment, etc.

The Comex provision also reduces the safeguards from 25% to 15% for a group of about 450 subheadings. Most items of the latter group include textiles, clothing, and footwear. The measure, however, provides that the subheadings that currently have a surcharge of 15% will remain unchanged.

For importers of high turnover items, such as frozen fruits or potatoes for fast food businesses, the reduction of safeguards will begin to be felt from next week. Ecuador imports fruits like apples, pears, grapes, and pomegranates, which were taxed at 40%. Ecuador set in March of 2015 surtaxes for 2961 items. Last January the Comex made an adjustment and subheadings with a 45% surcharge dropped to 40%.

Source: http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/salvaguardias-economia-ecuador-impuestos-alimentos.html