Trucks carrying containers are seen at a container dock in Yangshan Port, Shanghai, eastern China, April 27, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua News Agency)
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a news conference that talks on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Ecuador are progressing smoothly.
This reply was obtained after asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if it could confirm that the two countries might sign an FTA.
The deal will give Ecuadorian exports preferential access to China and provide manufacturers in the South American country with low-cost access to machinery and other products.
Ecuador’s ministry of production said in a statement that the deal would give Ecuador priority access to 99% of its exports to China, especially agricultural products such as shrimp, bananas, roses, flowers, cocoa and coffee.
Jiang Shixue, a professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Shanghai University, said the agreement will fully play out the economic complementarity of the two countries.
“This will help Ecuadorian agricultural products to easily access the huge Chinese market,” Jiang told the Global Times on Wednesday.
For China, Ecuador offers an opportunity to diversify its sources of strategic minerals such as copper and iron ore, Jiang said. “Following the agreement, we expect more Chinese companies to expand their investments in Ecuador,” Zhang said.
According to China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), China and Ecuador will start negotiations in February 2022. Bilateral trade increased her 44.5% to reach $10.95 billion in 2021, with China remaining her second largest trading partner for Ecuador.
Ecuador is an important partner of China in investment and trade with Latin America. Their cooperation covers a wide range of areas such as power, energy, mining and transportation.
The FTA agreement will also have the ripple effect of deepening cooperation between China and other Latin American countries, Jiang said.
The conclusion of China-Ecuador free trade talks has come as the latest FTA agreement between China and the Latin American country.
China has previously signed free trade agreements with Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
In October 2006, the China-Chile FTA came into effect. This is the first free trade agreement signed between China and a Latin American country. After that, the China-Peru FTA came into effect in March 2010, and the China-Costa Rica FTA came into effect in August 2011.
According to MOFCOM, the three countries’ annual exports to China have grown by double digits since the agreement came into force.
