Ecuador and China sign protocol to facilitate shrimp export

The Foreign Ministry, through the Ecuadorian ambassador in Beijing, Carlos Larrea, signed on Wednesday, August 12, the sanitary protocol for the export of shrimp whose final destination will be the Asian giant market.

Ecuador and China sign protocol to facilitate shrimp export

The agreement, which was signed by the Chinese side by the Deputy Minister of the General Administration of Customs, will boost the trade of the product to the Chinese market.

The signing of this bilateral instrument concludes a complex round of diplomatic and technical negotiations that were aimed at identifying more efficient procedures to improve the exchange of information and strengthen the inspection, quarantine and verification procedures of sanitary requirements, with which the commercial operations for the entry of Ecuadorian shrimp to the Chinese market.

In recent days, Ecuador managed to reverse the suspension by China of two of the three shrimp processing establishments, whose exports were interrupted by the customs authorities of that country. The third affected firm, once the review of its corrective documentation is completed, could retrieve the record for export.

The lifting of the suspensions took place after rigorous virtual inspections of the affected establishments, which allowed China, the largest buyer of the Ecuadorian product, to guarantee compliance with the safety and innocuousness protocols, thereby ratifying the performance of the sector and the world quality of national shrimp.

The inter-institutional management between the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries allowed a quick solution to the problem, for the benefit of the interests of thousands of Ecuadorian citizens who depend economically on this important productive sector.

The steps taken to solve the trade problem with shrimp have been framed in the spirit of the conversation held by Foreign Minister Luis Gallegos and the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, on July 23, in the framework of the China- CELAC, an opportunity in which they agreed on the importance of an urgent solution based on dialogue, negotiation and mutual respect, within the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Association signed between the two countries. (I)