Negotiations between Ecuador and the European Union on the future of its zero duty trade agreement are to resume in Brussels next week. The discussions will focus on the potential to extend the South American country’s GSP+ status with the region until the end of 2015.
Ecuador managed to renew its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP Plus) agreement with the European Union recently, but with an expiry date of December 31st this year. The deal allows for tuna products, as well as around 1,000 other goods to be exported to the EU with zero percent import duty.
Francisco Rivadeneira, Ecuador’s Minister for Foreign Trade, said that there is optimism that the country will sign the agreement in the first quarter of this year.
He stated that this is a priority for the export sector, processed tuna being a very important export for the country.
Exporters are hoping for the extended agreement to be signed before April so that negotiations do not run into 2015, leaving a gap where shipped tuna products would be subject to duty tariff.
Executive Director of the Ecuadorian Business Committee, Roberto Aspiazu, said that in the case of the country not reaching a trade agreement, exported tuna products to the EU will be subject to 24 percent import duty. He said this will eat away the profit of the exporting sector and would create massive losses in the market.
Ecuador is the world’s second largest exporting nation of tuna products after Thailand. Following Spain, it exports the highest amount of canned tuna to the EU.
In 2012, Ecuador shipped more than eight million cartons (48x185g) of canned tuna to the community, and over 34,000 tons of pre-cooked loins.