Mexico says that Ecuador will enter the Pacific Alliance

By Fernando Soto Estevez

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, hinted that he is willing to sign a trade agreement with Ecuador.

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said that Ecuador is going to enter the Pacific Alliance. The announcement will be made at the meeting of the Pacific Alliance, which will be held in Lima, where, in addition, Mexico will hand over the bloc’s pro tempore presidency to the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo.

In addition, López Obrador said that trade agreements will be signed at that meeting. He hinted that one of them would be the trade agreement between Mexico and Ecuador, since this is a requirement to enter the Pacific Alliance bloc.

The Mexican Head of State did not refer to the future that Ecuadorian bananas and shrimp will have in that agreement. Both products have been the focus of negotiations between the two countries in recent months, as they are considered sensitive products.

Ecuador is one of the main world exporters of the two products, which is why Mexican businessmen feel threatened in those sectors. Especially those from the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Tabasco (where López Obrador is from).

The productive sectors of those areas requested that Ecuadorian shrimp and bananas be excluded from the agreement. But Ecuador said that without those two products it would not sign a treaty with Mexico.

The presidents of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, and Mexico, López Obrador, analyzed the proposals and counterproposals on bananas and shrimp at the end of November.

With information from Diario Los Andes