Ecuador and Costa Rica have made significant progress in negotiations aimed at reaching a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Ecuadorian Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries, Julio José Prado, reported on Wednesday (12.10.2022/XNUMX/XNUMX).
The official indicated on his Twitter account that "very important progress" has been made that has allowed the closure 14 tables negotiation.
«Roundtables with progress, but in the process of negotiation: access to markets, services, public purchases", Prado said.
The minister also announced that a new round of negotiations will be held in person at the end of this month in the city of San José, the capital of Costa Rica.
It should be noted that both countries began the first round of trade negotiations in virtual format on August 8, following the willingness of the presidents of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, and Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, to begin negotiations for a free trade agreement.
The two leaders made the announcement on June 9, during the IX Summit of the Americas held in the American city of Los Angeles, California.
According to the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries of Ecuador, it is a "cutting-edge trade agreement", in which negotiations will be held 18 disciplines such as market access for goods; rules of origin and customs procedures; and trade facilitation.
Trade and labor issues; intellectual property; public procurement; technical barriers to trade and regulatory consistency; sanitary and phytosanitary measures; trade defense; competition policy and electronic commerce, among other disciplines, will also be negotiated.
The aim is to ensure a clear and transparent legal framework for regulating trade, as well as to seek broad liberalisation between the two countries.
For Ecuador, reaching such an agreement with Costa Rica is key to its strategy of consolidating its position in the Central American market, where it already has trade agreements with Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Among the products that Ecuador sends to this market are canned fish, metal products, bananas, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
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