Mexico and Ecuador seek to finalize trade agreement
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President Guillermo Lasso visits the Mexican capital starting this Thursday to meet with his counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, arrived in Mexico where this Thursday (11.24.2'22) he will meet with his counterpart Andres Lopez Obrador, to close negotiations for a trade agreement between the two countries.
Lasso, who took office in May 2021, will complete his second official visit to Mexico after the first in August of last year and his stay will be around 24 hours since he will leave the country on Thursday afternoon.
The Ecuadorian president arrived in Mexico around 8:00 p.m. local time (02:00 GMT on Thursday) at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) in Mexico, inaugurated on March 21 and one of the mega-projects promoted by Lopez Obrador.
#AzucenaALas10 | Llegó a México el presidente de Ecuador Guillermo Lasso; aterrizó en el AIFA pic.twitter.com/7lTfeY9wbp
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) November 24, 2022
Lasso maintained his visit to Mexico despite the postponement of the presidential summit of the Pacific Alliance, which Lasso had planned to attend together with his Costa Rican counterpart, Rodrigo Chaves, as the two countries that aspire to be members of this mechanism formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
The suspension of the Pacific Alliance summit that was scheduled for Friday in Mexico City occurred due to the refusal of the Peruvian Congress to allow President Pedro Castillo to attend.
Regarding the Trade Agreement with Mexico, for Ecuador it is key to close it since it is the requirement that it lacks before being able to enter the Pacific Alliance, and in parallel it is also negotiating another trade agreement with Costa Rica.
The latest round of negotiations between Ecuador and Mexico had been stuck since May, after Mexico opposed including products such as tuna, shellfish and bananas in the treaty, which are three of the main emblems of Ecuadorian exports.
However, in October, both Ecuador and Mexico agreed to “a permanent dialogue to seek the final closure of the agreement,” according to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry in a statement.