Negotiations resume for a trade agreement between Ecuador and Mexico

In 2021, Ecuadorian non-oil exports to Mexico reached $161 million, according to data from the Central Bank of Ecuador.

From May 23 to 27, an in-person round of negotiations for the Trade Agreement between Ecuador and Mexico will be held, which will focus on market access, rules of origin, trade defense, services and institutional issues.

The meeting, based in Quito, will take place after a conversation between leaders Guillermo Lasso, of Ecuador; and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from Mexico, who congratulated the teams' progress and decided to accelerate the process in order to reach a technical closure of the negotiations.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investment and Fisheries, the delegations are led by the chief negotiators of each country and the technical coordinators of the different tables, in addition to the vice ministers of Foreign Trade of the parties, who will meet at the end of the week.

The institution noted that “interinstitutional work has been carried out with the other State portfolios to outline an agreement that benefits both nations and, additionally, the fourth deputy mechanism was included, in which different Ecuadorian productive sectors participate, which They will also have a space with their Mexican counterparts on this day.”

This agreement is “a decisive step” in the country's accession to the Pacific Alliance, indicated the Ministry.

Currently, Mexico is the 15th largest destination for Ecuador's non-oil exports and the 8th largest supplier of non-oil imports.

In 2021, Ecuadorian non-oil exports to Mexico reached $161 million, although imports from Mexico far exceeded them with $681 million, resulting in a deficit balance for Ecuador with $520 million.

Currently, the Ecuadorian products that are sold the most to the 'Aztec' countryThey are cocoa, seafood preparations and preserves, non-electric machinery, candies and chocolates, iron and steel tubes and profiles.

In recent years, that country has become one of the main sources of foreign direct investment that Ecuadorian territory receives, according to data from the Central Bank of Ecuador.